NVIDIA shares surge on Intel buyout rumors

[Slimy]

Shares in NVIDIA Corporation surged nearly 8 percent today amid speculation that the graphics card company was about to be purchased by chip giant Intel. The stock rose $2.32 to hit $30.62 in afternoon trading on the NASDAQ exchange. An Intel spokeswoman declined to comment on the rumors, and there has been no statement from NVIDIA on the subject.

If the rumor is true, the announcement could come quickly. "There is speculation that Intel will make an acquisition announcement tonight," Bill Lefkowitz, an options strategist at vFinance Investments, told Reuters. However, not every analyst shares this belief. Some feel that NVIDIA's market cap of $10 billion would represent too high a price for Intel, which is currently on a cost-cutting spree.

The deal, if it happens, would mirror the purchase of rival graphics card maker ATI by chipmaker AMD. That acquisition represented a significantly lower cost outlay, as ATI's market capitalization was only $4.2 billion at the time. Still, AMD managed to swing the deal, a combination of cash and stock, while only having a market cap slightly more than double ATI's. Intel's valuation currently stands at an impressive $120 billion.

Intel currently manufactures integrated graphics chipsets, which are found in many Intel-based motherboards. However, it has not ventured into the world of discrete graphics cards, where NVIDIA and ATI have for years battled it out to see who can create the fastest-performing 3D accelerator card. If Intel were to pick up NVIDIA, it might eventually divide the computing world into two separate camps, offering what are essentially two different types of PCs. Whether or not the merger happens, there is a definite trend of consolidation among PC hardware companies. As in other maturing industries (such as passenger jet manufacturers) there may end up being one or two strong competitors that wind up surviving.

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[pyehac]

If this happens, then will Intel be the #1 graphics chip maker?

[Allan]

$120 billion ?!? :blink: :| :o

[Lasker]

this could be even more strong than ATI/AMD

[NienorGT]

Nice... Nice Nice... I'm kinda happy in a certain point since Intel + Nvidia fellow what I think like the best combo.

But this will now officially brake the market. AMD + ATi or Intel + nVIDIA, no other choice. So if you like ATi + Intel, forget it.

this mean if the G80 is weaker than the R600... we will not like this... Getting the best CPU with the weaker GFX card is not a good thing...

[Tech Star]

YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH I AM JUMPING UP AND DOWN!!!!!!!!!! :D That would be SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool! :D

[Jon 5]

But wouldn't this hurt Intel's own onboard gfx cards? Maybe not idk...

[macrosslover]

$120 billion ?!? :blink: :| :o

I think MS is at like $300 billion or something or somewhere up there. I forget which company has the highest value..GE?? but either way $120 billion isn't really that much. and to the previous poster Intel alreayd is the #1 supplier of graphic chips, boards whatever it is, they are #1 in something. I really don't see the need for them to buy nvidia, they have nothing to gain from it. If intel really wanted to they could develop a graphics card design just as effective as anything ati or nvidia could come out with but why do it when you have 2 companies that already do.

[sundayx Veteran]

I LIKE IT, good news

[halcyoncmdr]

See, I like AMD and nVidia :p oh well, I don't think it will become a complete shut-out ever. But this is still the largest monopoly country on Earth.

[*RedBull*]

I like Amd and Nvidia too. It's a shame they didn't combine. Oh well...

[Sartoris]

Nice... Nice Nice... I'm kinda happy in a certain point since Intel + Nvidia fellow what I think like the best combo.

But this will now officially brake the market. AMD + ATi or Intel + nVIDIA, no other choice. So if you like ATi + Intel, forget it.

this mean if the G80 is weaker than the R600... we will not like this... Getting the best CPU with the weaker GFX card is not a good thing...

This is why it was a bad idea for AMD to buy ATI. I can only hope that they keep their product lines separate and do not try anything that would make their video cards work better with their CPU's only.

[hagjohn]

Nice... Nice Nice... I'm kinda happy in a certain point since Intel + Nvidia fellow what I think like the best combo.

But this will now officially brake the market. AMD + ATi or Intel + nVIDIA, no other choice. So if you like ATi + Intel, forget it.

this mean if the G80 is weaker than the R600... we will not like this... Getting the best CPU with the weaker GFX card is not a good thing...

I agree... I think if we end up getting only ATI with an AMD processor and nVIDIA with Intel, we just may end up losing as consumers.

[the godfather]

will Intel still sell seperate nVidia cards? yes, will Amd still sell seperate ATI cards? yes.

buy an amd processor, and an nvidia card, put into the same machine bingo! AMD + nvidia, Intel + ATI

that will stay the same, what most probably will change are no nforce chipsets for amd and vice versa

[L3thal Veteran]

To me, it would make better sense for Intel and nVidia to merge but yet operate separately. I don't think Intel will come out and buy out nVidia. A merger or even collaboration is what could happen.

[Hurmoth]

I don't see this happening. I think if this does happen it will hurt nVidia. The AMD/ATI buyout was a great move for both companies because they were the underdog (so to speak), but nVidia being the #1 GPU manufacture and Intel being the #1 CPU manufacture, I could only see this as being a bad decision.

In my opinion, it will end up like the HP/Compaq buyout. I just don't see how this will help either company.

[lil_psc]

nvidia is too big of a corp for intel to buy

also, just last year nvidia was talking about going into the CPU market

[L3thal Veteran]

also, just last year nvidia was talking about going into the CPU market

Doesn't that tell you something about this rumor regarding Intel and nVidia? :shiftyninja:

[strekship]

I don't see this happening. nVidia is pretty big, and i don't see them getting bought out.

[xxdesmus]

That would be great news for the industry I think, but like everyone else has said...I don't really see it happening.

[Ajapi]

This could totally happen. Granted, nVidia is big, but trust me: Intel is bigger. This would be a big plus for the short term, as Intel could design some chipsets with better integrated graphics. This would be specially important to the mobile sector. Adding a 7300-esque card as a mandatory requirement in a new platform (reminiscent of Centrino). Think of it: Centrino 2 (or something :p) platform, to ensure Core 2 Duo + nVidia graphics. Plus, if you take some time to analyze current trends, everything points to a paradigm shift in the way computers will be designed in the future. I give the current PC model one more decade, tops, before it changes radically to a design where there is more unification (i.e, CPU+GPU on a chip or PCB, maybe system memory as well). This integration would allow for lower latencies between connecting components, which in turn would provide better effectivity. The only concern would be the inherent difficulty it would present for upgrading, as well as highly increased price: such a component would require an exceedingly complex fabrication process, which translates into low yields at first. Note that I am no analyst of any kind, this is just a humble mortal's interpretation of what might happen in years to come, regardless of how unpredictable technology is.

All things considered, I believe the industry is taking altogether too long to implement some technologies that should be standard by now. It is amazing, for one, that computers don't yet ship with solid state memory to store operating systems. Prices on NAND chips have undergone sufficient increase in capacity and decrease in price for it to be instilled upon the market as a standard feature. I mean, in a market where people buy $50 keyboards and mice or $300 power supplies (not to mention $700 graphic cards and $600 CPUs), it is unfathomable that we still boot from hard disk drives. Shallow and pedantic as the widespread diffusion of a new technology might be, it is about time. This is just one of the setbacks I find anachronistic in the level to which technology has evolved so far.

I now realize I've gone way off topic. In what will probably be a feeble attempt to redeem myself from such transgression, I will now go back to the matter at hand :p I don't see a merger happening. If anything, Intel will buy nVidia and operate as two platforms that share information but don't interfere with each other's R&D.

(Please excuse any grammar mistakes, as English is not my first language, as well as the fact that my post went *quite* off-topic)

[grik]

If this goes through, life is gonna be very boring when buying a PC.

I dont think this will happen, but in the end we will know where this really goes.

[strekship]

Well even if it does go through i don't see intel makeing nVidia cards only work on intel platforms.

[Kaidiir]

Man those graphics chip companies are flying off the shelves.

[Chanser]

Yeah that would be dumb making Nvidia cards just for Intel only.

Would love to see Nvidia/Intel vs ATI/AMD Monopoly board! :p