Intel has just received a huge investment from a surprising partner: Nvidia. Team Green spent 5 billion USD to buy Intel common stock at 23.28 USD per share. The deal is part of a partnership to jointly develop a new line of systems on a chip (SoCs), the Intel x86 RTX SoCs, which combine Intel CPUs with Nvidia RTX GPUs and target a range of PCs, especially gaming. In addition, Intel will design custom x86 CPUs for data centers for Nvidia to use in its AI platforms.
Intel x86 RTX SoC: Combining a CPU and GPU for gaming PCs
According to Intel, the new SoCs will serve PCs that need a tight pairing of top-tier CPU performance and RTX GPU power. There is no official word yet on pricing, specs, or release date, but those details are expected to be announced at an upcoming joint press event.
What sets the partnership apart is its use of Nvidia's NVLink interconnect to link the CPU and GPU. NVLink offers far higher bandwidth and much lower latency than traditional PCIe. For example, the Grace CPU superchip with NVLink-C2C can reach GPU connection speeds of up to 900 GB/s. When Intel's x86 CPU is paired with an RTX GPU over NVLink, the result promises to be a serious counterweight to AMD's APUs, which have long held the advantage in this segment. Chances are the Intel x Nvidia SoC will be used in gaming laptops and other high-performance devices.
The new product recalls Kaby Lake-G in 2017, when Intel combined Kaby Lake cores with AMD's Radeon Vega graphics in a single chip. However, limited cooling capacity, high TDPs (65W and 100W), and few OEMs adopting it led to Kaby Lake-G being discontinued quickly, in 2019. With the Nvidia partnership and the use of NVLink, Intel seems to want to rewrite that story with a more successful ending.
A strategic partnership between Nvidia and Intel
Beyond developing the SoCs, the deal also shows that Intel will build custom x86 CPUs for Nvidia, serving growing demand in AI and data centers. It suggests both companies are looking to leverage each other's strengths to expand their positions in key market segments.
Nvidia's 5 billion USD investment in Intel was made at a price roughly 6% below the market. It is still unclear how much influence the investment will have on Intel's business decisions, and the deal is still awaiting regulatory approval.
The deal comes as Intel has also recently received a large investment from the US government. Last August, President Donald Trump announced that the US government would take a 9.9% stake in Intel, worth 8.9 billion USD. Of that, 5.7 billion USD comes from unpaid grants under the CHIPS and Science Act, along with 3.2 billion USD from the Secure Enclave program. Before that, Softbank had also bought an additional 2 billion USD of Intel stock.
With this string of investments and strategic alliances, Intel and Nvidia are placing a big bet on the future, where AI, gaming PCs, and data centers will decide the game.
