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Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

tomshardware.com

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Re: Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

#311

Post by sfilmeyer »

techsystems wrote: post #267

The reason why Nvidia is buying now does not have to do anything with Arc or GPU competition. There are mainly two reasons. 1) This year, Intel, TSMC, and Samsung announced their latest factories' yields. Intel was the earliest, with 18A, while Samsung was the most recent. TSMC yieled above 60%, Intel below 60%, and Samsung around 50% (but Samsung's tech is basically a generation ahead and technically more precise),…

>2) It's just generally good to diversify into your competitors. Every company does this, especially when the price is cheap.

This definitely isn't a thing that every company does (or even close to every company).

Re: Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

#313

Post by NewJazz »

lobsterthief wrote: post #283
SlightlyLeftPad wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not shut down; regulated.

The FCC does not have the power to shut down broadcasts based on their content.

It does have the power to intimidate broadcasters and pressure them in a variety of ways.

Re: Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

#314

Post by dismalaf »

Strategically this is good for the US and the West. Intel needs to survive because they have the only advanced fabs that aren't within reach of China.

But as a consumer, I hate this. Intel APUs have become quite good and are great for Linux users. I don't want Nvidia's bullshit infecting them. Jenson wants to be the Apple of chips and we'll all be worse off if Nvidia SoCs become ubiquitous.

Re: Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

#315

Post by freedomben »

evanjrowley wrote: post #211

Nvidia's stake in Intel could have terrible consequences. First, it is in Nvidia's interest to kill Intel's Arc graphics, and that would be very bad because it is the only thing brighing GPU prices down for consumers. Second, the death of Intel graphics / Arc would be extremely bad for Linux, because Intel's approach to GPU drivers is the best for compatibility, wheras Nvidia is actively hostile to drivers on Linux.…

You absolutely nailed it IMHO. I wish I had more upvotes to give. I guess time will tell, but this seems like a clear conflict of interest.

Re: Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

#316

Post by FirmwareBurner »

lawlessone wrote: post #296
paxys wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US government is itself a major shareholder in Intel, and has every incentive to push Intel stock over its competitors. It's almost a certainty that Nvidia was forced into this deal by the government as well. We are way beyond regulation here.

What happens now if one of these companies implodes? does it pull everything with it?

Well, the AI bubble will eventually pop since none of the major AI chatbots are remotely profitable, even on OpenAI's eyewatering $200/month pay plan which very few have been willing to pay, and even on that OpenAI is still loosing money on it. And when it pops, so will Nvidia's stock, it's only a matter of time.

The AI hype train was built on the premise that AI will progress linearly and eventually end up replacing a lot of well paid white collar work, but it failed to deliver on that promise by now, and progress has flatlined or sometimes even gone backwards (see GPT-5 vs 4o).

FAANG companies can only absorb these losses for so long before shareholders pull out.

Re: Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

#317

Post by dlcarrier »

fidotron wrote: post #202
dlcarrier wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Console makers only get trivial modifications. ASRock sold a cryptocurrency miner, the BC-250, with the PS5 APU, and it works just like any of their other APUs, albeit with limited driver support.

The BC250 does not use a PS5 APU, it uses another APU which has the same CPU core. By that measure the Cell in the PS3 and the Xenon of the XBox 360 were the same, or any AMD Jaguar device is a PS4. This relates to the Intel problem because they see the world the way you just described, and completely failed to grasp the importance of SoC development where you are suddenly free to consider the world without the preex…

There's almost no chance it isn't using rejected PS5 APU dies. It has fused off two of the eight CPU cores, as well as 12 of the 36 GPU compute units, but otherwise has the exact same specifications. The one customization Sony did get, the use of GDDR6 RAM, is still present. It also exhibits the same very short-lived mix of Zen 2 with RDNA 2 and has the same die size and aspect ratio.

Re: Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

#318

Post by freedomben »

bee_rider wrote: post #307
evanjrowley wrote: post #211

Nvidia's stake in Intel could have terrible consequences. First, it is in Nvidia's interest to kill Intel's Arc graphics, and that would be very bad because it is the only thing brighing GPU prices down for consumers. Second, the death of Intel graphics / Arc would be extremely bad for Linux, because Intel's approach to GPU drivers is the best for compatibility, wheras Nvidia is actively hostile to drivers on Linux.…

Apparently it is 5% ownership. Does that give them enough leverage to tank Intel’s iGPUs? That would seem weird to be. Intel’s iGPUs are an incredibly good solution for their (non-glamorous) niche. Intel’s dGPUs might be in a risky spot, though. (So… what’s new?) Messing up Intel’s iGPUs would be a huge practical loss for, like, everyday desktop Linux folks. Tossing out their dGPUs, I don’t know if it is such a huge…

I would guess Nvidia doesn't care at all about the iGPUs, so I agree they are probably not at risk. dGPUs though I absolutely agree They are in a risky spot. Perhaps Intel was planning to kill their more ambitious GPU goals anyway, but That seems extremely unhealthy for pretty much everyone except Nvidia

Re: Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

#319

Post by bee_rider »

paxys wrote: post #278
littlecranky67 wrote: post #167

This is a death blow to the Intel GPU+AI efforts and should not be allowed by the regulators. It is clear that Intel needs the downstream, low-cost GPU market segment to have a portfolio of AI chips based on chiplets, where most defective ones end up in the consumer grade GPUs based on manufacturing yield. NVidias interest is now for Intel not to enter either the GPU market, nor the AI market - which Intel was prepar…

The US government is itself a major shareholder in Intel, and has every incentive to push Intel stock over its competitors. It's almost a certainty that Nvidia was forced into this deal by the government as well. We are way beyond regulation here.

The US government isn’t (or at least shouldn’t be) profit-motivated anyway, so it isn’t obvious what their incentives are WRT Intel’s stock.

Re: Nvidia buys $5B in Intel

#320

Post by iszomer »

JustExAWS wrote: post #289
tensor wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I guess enjoy using your 3rd world Intel GPUs. A shitty foundery is irrelevant.

Intel isn’t that far behind. But it is dumb to depend on fabs in a country that is just one Chinese missile away from getting destroyed.

And why would they when TSMC is in both China and the US in some fashion?
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