Nvidia and Intel Announce Joint Development of Intel x86 RTX SOCs and Strategic Investment Overview In a surprising collaboration, longtime rivals Nvidia and Intel announced they will jointly develop new generations of x86 processors integrating Nvidia RTX graphics for PCs, marking a significant shift in the tech industry. The partnership also includes Nvidia buying $5 billion in Intel stock, approximately a 5% stake, signaling a deepening partnership with broad implications. --- Key Announcements Intel x86 RTX SOCs for Gaming PCs: These system-on-chip (SoC) processors combine Intel x86 CPUs tightly connected to Nvidia RTX GPU chiplets via the high-bandwidth NVLink interface. Designed primarily for thin-and-light gaming laptops and small form-factor PCs, competing directly against AMD’s APUs. Offer unified memory access (UMA), allowing the CPU and GPU to share the same memory pool, improving efficiency over previous solutions like Intel’s discontinued Kaby Lake-G with AMD Radeon GPUs. Nvidia’s Custom Data Center x86 CPUs: Intel will fabricate custom x86 CPUs for Nvidia's AI and enterprise data center products. These chips will also leverage Nvidia’s NVLink Fusion technology for faster CPU-GPU communication compared to PCIe, improving AI workload performance. The extent of customization to Intel’s Xeon base architecture remains unknown but represents a strategic expansion of Intel's custom design capabilities. Nvidia's Investment in Intel: Nvidia will purchase $5 billion of Intel common stock at $23.28 per share, a price slightly below market value. This purchase follows the U.S. government's recent $10 billion investment (9.9% stake) and SoftBank's $2 billion purchase at $23 per share. These investments boost Intel’s capital during a challenging period of high capital expenditure and negative free cash flow. --- Technical and Market Insights Architecture Integration: The Nvidia-Intel SoCs differ from previous Intel-AMD packages, employing NVLink for enhanced bandwidth and latency compared to PCIe connections. Both companies will manage drivers independently, with Nvidia handling GPU drivers and Intel selling the finished consumer processors. Intel’s proprietary Xe graphics will continue as the primary iGPU for mass-market products, meaning this Nvidia collaboration supplements rather than replaces Intel’s existing GPU portfolio. Strategic Impact: Intel’s x86 RTX SOCs will directly compete with AMD’s popular integrated CPU+GPU solutions in the notebook market, where Intel already dominates with roughly 79% of worldwide laptop CPU shipments. Nvidia currently controls about 92% of the global gaming GPU market, making this partnership a formidable tag team against AMD. Manufacturing Considerations: It is not yet confirmed whether Nvidia-related chips will be fabricated at Intel’s foundries or outsourced to third parties like TSMC. Intel aims to bring production of high-performance parts back to its own fabs but has historically used both Intel Foundry and TSMC for client processors. Data Center Market: Intel has long provided custom Xeon processors with minor tweaks to hyperscalers, but this partnership is poised to develop more deeply customized x86 chips optimized for Nvidia’s AI workloads. Nvidia’s adoption of NVLink Fusion could significantly improve performance and efficiency for AI applications compared to competitors who use different interconnect technologies (e.g., AMD’s Infinity Fabric and UALink). --- Statements from Executives Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang: Called AI a transformative force reinventing computing and described the collaboration as a fusion of two world-class platforms to drive the next era of computing. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan: Highlighted Intel’s commitment to innovation and was positive about combining