Nvidia Not Approached for Intel Stake, CEO Says

Nvidia has not been approached about acquiring a stake in Intel, CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday, addressing speculation about potential semiconductor industry consolidation.

"Nobody's invited us to a consortium," Huang told reporters at Nvidia's annual developer conference. "Nobody invited me. Maybe other people are involved, but I don't know. There might be a party. I wasn't invited."

Reuters previously reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) had approached Nvidia, Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices about joining a potential joint venture to operate Intel's factories. Other media outlets reported Intel was considering separating its manufacturing operations with U.S. President Donald Trump's support, potentially transferring control to a TSMC-led consortium.

Bullshit

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

Of course they have. It's obviously not a good idea for NV, but they've certainly been approached and this idea has been floated, probably more times than one.

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[Pinky's Brain]

It's time to make hay, if TSMC tweaks Intel's EUV steppers and increases yields 5x then they will be able to sell more product.

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[Targon]

So, TSMC would come in to build a competitor in the foundry business? If TSMC were to buy the fabs outright, that could work.

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[larryjoe]

It's time to make hay, if TSMC tweaks Intel's EUV steppers and increases yields 5x then they will be able to sell more product.

I suppose this is the grand secret and mystery to why TSMC can do so well with each new process generation. Is it simply a matter of specific settings on the equipment? Or maybe procedures that can be written down and duplicated? Or is it some sort of strategy and tactics that applied by trained technicians? Or is it even more complex than that, having to do with TSMC "culture"?

My guess is that it is more complex. SMIC tried to hire away what it thought were key upper-level executives and managers from

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[evanh]

The only thing that occurred for certain was the rumours. This particular one was one of many that all popped up at the same time after Pat was sacked. There was never any evidence to back it up.

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[larryjoe]

Of course they have. It's obviously not a good idea for NV, but they've certainly been approached and this idea has been floated, probably more times than one.

I'm sure everyone's right because semantics allow it to be so. What does "invite" mean? To me, it sounds like an invitation. If I'm feeling out someone's feelings about a possible invitation, then I'm not yet inviting them. So, "approaching" someone without "inviting" them is totally logical. TSMC likely tried to get Nvidia's feelings about doing a foundry, and they quickly realized that Nvidia wouldn't be receptive. Hence, yes approached, but no invitation.

Aside from a foundry being lower margin and

That's not how this works

[CEC-P]

Intel doesn't want to sell anything to anyone. Nvidia is going to get obliterated any day now by the AI bubble popping and only the core, useful, successful AI companies continuing to keep compute units. Also, it looks like anyone with money and an ARM fab is going to outperform them very shortly. So they don't need 2 failing businesses on their books. However, if they wanted to acquire a piece of the company, they just would. You don't have to wait for them to ask. This is not evidence of it not happening.

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[Guspaz]

If AI really is a bubble, and it pops, nVidia will be fine. I mean, yes, they'd lose probably around half to two thirds of their revenue, but the worst-case scenario is just falling back to their 2022 revenue numbers. If nothing else, they'll still have a strong presence in enterprise networking and compute, and a near monopoly in consumer graphics.