Surprise β NVIDIA and Intel has jointly announced a collaboration to develop βmultiple generations of custom data center and PC products,β and in particular, two of NVIDIAβs key IPs will be involved: NVLink, and GeForce RTX. Looks like weβre in for interesting times, but letβs first explain how the deal will happen.
NVIDIA & Intel Join Forces

NVIDIA says the partnership and Intel will involve through NVLink protocol on the datacenter side by combining the AI giantβs know-how with Intelβs CPU technologies and x86 ecosystem. As such, Intel will produce NVIDIA-custom x86 CPUs that will be integrated into NVIDIAβs AI infrastructure platforms and offered to the market. This likely have huge implications, especially given that NVIDIA has somewhat committed itself into Arm-based designs with recent chip releases like Grace CPU, along with the upcoming N1/N1x series destined for consumer PCs.
Speaking of consumer segments, thereβs an even bigger surprise: Intel will manufacture and sell x86-based system-on-chips (SoCs) that incorporate RTX GPU chiplets, similar to AMDβs Ryzen AI Max series APUs that combine the best of Ryzen and Radeon into a single chip. There are monetary transactions involved too, as NVIDIA will invest $5 billion in Intelβs common stock at a purchase price of $23.28 per share, meaning the GPU chipmaker officially owns 4.9% of the companyβs stake.
Despite this partnership, Intelβs foundry outlook continues to look bleak, as the partnership doesnβt address the foundry side of things β NVIDIA is merely involved in the future generations of chip designs from the Chipzilla, and as far as the GPU makerβs AI chips are concerned, theyβre fully committed to TSMC for now. On the consumer level, there are also concerns whether the integration of RTX graphics may eventually cannibalize Intelβs Arc GPU department, which still have no meaningful footing in the discrete GPU market today.
To that end, Intel clarifies to PCWorld: βWeβre not discussing specific roadmaps at this time, but the collaboration is complementary to Intelβs roadmap and Intel will continue to have GPU product offerings.β While the statement didnβt directly address Arc GPUs, at least it seems like Arc will survive in the short-term β although itβs hard to say what happens beyond Druid (βXe4β), which is the furthest generation Intel has publicly announced in their roadmap.
Pokdepinion: This might just be a pivotal moment in the history of chipmaking β although I am worried about the future of Arc GPUs, too.
