Rumours: Nvidia Will Acquire Amd

[bangbuathong]

Doug Friedman, an analyst with American Technology Research, said that graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. could well acquire x86 microprocessor maker Advanced Micro Devices in order to “re-architect it”. The acquisition is considered to be useful due to the fact that roadmaps of AMD and Intel Corp. threat Nvidia. The only problem for the graphics giant is that AMD’s x86 license is a non-transferable one. “We believe AMD [could] face mounting pressure from shareholders, to restructure the company with a focus on a change in leadership,” said the analyst.

Indeed, shareholders of AMD are hardly pleased with the company’s performance in the recent quarters as well as issues with the launch of quad-core microprocessors and the release of DirectX 10 graphics processing units. Nevertheless, late last year AMD managed to secure $622 million from Mubadala Development Company, which means that there are those who believe in AMD. But despite of the problems that AMD has had, its roadmap of integration graphics cores into central processing units (CPUs) threats Nvidia: not only AMD increases its market share on the market of graphics adapters, but it transforms graphics solutions into commodity, which may potentially affect Nvidia’s revenues going forward. That wouldn’t be a good acquirement in my eyes by any means as it would basically eliminate the competition of ATI at the market and lead to an increasement of prices.

Source: Xbit-labs

[Gary A]

Doug Friedman, an analyst with American Technology Research, said that graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. could well acquire x86 microprocessor maker Advanced Micro Devices in order to “re-architect it”. The acquisition is considered to be useful due to the fact that roadmaps of AMD and Intel Corp. threat Nvidia. The only problem for the graphics giant is that AMD’s x86 license is a non-transferable one. “We believe AMD [could] face mounting pressure from shareholders, to restructure the company with a focus on a change in leadership,” said the analyst.

Indeed, shareholders of AMD are hardly pleased with the company’s performance in the recent quarters as well as issues with the launch of quad-core microprocessors and the release of DirectX 10 graphics processing units. Nevertheless, late last year AMD managed to secure $622 million from Mubadala Development Company, which means that there are those who believe in AMD. But despite of the problems that AMD has had, its roadmap of integration graphics cores into central processing units (CPUs) threats Nvidia: not only AMD increases its market share on the market of graphics adapters, but it transforms graphics solutions into commodity, which may potentially affect Nvidia’s revenues going forward. That wouldn’t be a good acquirement in my eyes by any means as it would basically eliminate the competition of ATI at the market and lead to an increasement of prices.

Source: Xbit-labs

I read an article that Nvidia is betting the ranch on the future of cell phones. They want to concentrate on graphic boards and chips for the more and more powerful smart phones. It would make sense for them to go in that direction.

Edited February 18, 2008 by Gary A