AI chipmaker NVIDIA and computing giant Intel are collaborating to create a line of custom data center and PC products, with NVIDIA investing $5 billion in Intel to support the project. The solutions will accelerate apps and workloads across hyperscale, enterprise and consumer markets.
The companies will focus on connecting their architectures using NVIDIA NVLink, a high-speed interconnect for GPUs and CPUs. This move integrates NVIDIA’s CUDA computing software with Intel’s CPU technologies and its x86 ecosystem, a computing architecture designed to enhance performance interoperability across hardware and software platforms. Intel will develop x86 system-on-chips that will integrate NVIDIA RTX GPU chiplets to power computing.
“Intel’s leading data center and client computing platforms, combined with our process technology, manufacturing and advanced packaging capabilities, will complement NVIDIA’s AI and accelerated computing leadership to enable new breakthroughs for the industry,” Lip-Bu Tan, Intel’s CEO, said in a statement.
The partnership announcement closely follows other notable investments in Intel, including the U.S. government’s 9.9 percent stake in the company as a result of an $8.9 billion stock purchase agreement.