Intel could have bought Nvidia for $20 billion in 2005: why the deal fell through
Kyiv • UNN
Former Intel CEO Paul Otellini tried to buy Nvidia for $20 billion, but the board of directors rejected the deal. In 20 years, Nvidia has become 30 times more expensive than Intel.
Former Intel CEO Paul Otellini wanted to buy chipmaker Nvidia in 2005, when the company was known only for producing chips for computer graphics and it had potential for data centers. This was reported by The New York Times with reference to sources, UNN writes.
Details
In 2005, Intel CEO Paul Otellini tried to make a deal to buy Nvidia. Intel's top managers believed that over time, the chipmaker's technology could be useful for data processing.
It was expected that $20 billion would be spent on the purchase of Nvidia. However, Otellini failed to convince Intel's board of directors of the importance of the deal.
According to the publication's sources, Intel's board of directors resisted the deal for several reasons. First, it would have been the most expensive acquisition in Intel's history; second, historically, Intel has not been very good at acquiring other companies.
Instead of buying Nvidia, Intel decided to focus on creating its own GPU: the Larrabee project was launched, led by current Intel CEO Patrick Helsinger. A few years later, the project was closed, as it failed to create a decent GPU.
Almost 20 years later, it turned out that Otellini was right: Nvidia technologies were indeed suitable for working with artificial intelligence. Nowadays, Nvidia's capitalization is about 30 times higher than Intel's.
Recall
Nvidia plans to report impressive financial results from AI chip sales in the second quarter of 2024. The company expects significant revenue growth from its next-generation Blackwell GPUs in the coming quarters.
