14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since Advanced Micro Devices bought ATI, rumors about Intel buying NVIDIA have been cropping up on a nearly regular basis, but skepticism ran rampant each and every time.
This occasion is no different, although the source of the rumor does have a high measure of credibility, at least.
Still, that credibility is sorely tested. Even Bright Side of News had to know that there weren't very good odds to convince the public that Intel will actually buy NVIDIA.
Nevertheless, that is precisely what its report claims. According to so-called sources, a “coffee table” is being sat at by Intel and NVIDIA, where the two are discussing the possibility of teaming up in the near future.
The presumed terms of the collaboration are wild, not to mention incompatible with previous reports about Intel and its plans.
Basically, Intel will buy NVIDIA (both the mobile processing and the Geforce business), while the latter's CEO will become the leader of the whole corporation.
Intel's poor track record on the mobile market has been noted, and could be a strong enough reason to buy an SoC maker. NVIDIA's Tegra 3 has been very successful, so the deal makes sense from this point of view.
Nevertheless, NVIDIA is not in any financial problem and has a very clear-cut market where it does business.
With Tegra 3 doing so well, and its successors poised to do even better, it stands to gain a lot by remaining a rival to AMD and Intel, in addition to its fellow ARM SoC designers.
There is also the little problem of Intel changing its own chief executive officer. Paul Otellini will leave in May 2013 and, though Chipzilla did say it was considering both internal and external replacements, the man will be replaced by an insider, according to more recent reports.
All in all, this latest rumor about a possible NVIDIA buyout by Intel is no more substantiated than all the previous ones.