Nvidia is set to invest $5bn in Intel and will work with the US chipmaker to co-develop custom data centres and PC products.

The move by Nvidia follows an announcement made last month about the US government’s $8.9bn investment in Intel common stock as part of efforts to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the country.

In the same month, Japan’s SoftBank agreed to invest $2bn in Intel common stock.

Nvidia will purchase Intel common stock at a purchase price of $23.28 per share. The purchase is subject to customary closing conditions, including required regulatory approvals.

According to a Reuters report, the stake will give Nvidia about 4% of Intel after the issuance of new shares.

Under the collaboration, the two companies aim to connect their architectures using Nvidia NVLink, combining Nvidia’s AI and accelerated computing with Intel’s central processing unit technologies (CPUs) and x86 ecosystem.

The partnership also plans to offer the jointly developed data centres and PC products across hyperscale, enterprise and consumer markets, stated the two companies.

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang said: “AI is powering a new industrial revolution and reinventing every layer of the computing stack – from silicon to systems to software. At the heart of this reinvention is Nvidia’s CUDA architecture.

“This historic collaboration tightly couples Nvidia’s AI and accelerated computing stack with Intel’s CPUs and the vast x86 ecosystem – a fusion of two world-class platforms. Together, we will expand our ecosystems and lay the foundation for the next era of computing.”

In data centres, Intel will build Nvidia‑custom x86 CPUs. Nvidia will integrate these CPUs into its AI infrastructure platforms and offer them to the market.

In personal computing, Intel will build and sell x86 system‑on‑chips that integrate Nvidia RTX graphics processing unit (GPU) chiplets.

According to the companies, these x86 RTX SoCs will power PCs that require integration of CPUs and GPUs.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said: “Intel’s x86 architecture has been foundational to modern computing for decades – and we are innovating across our portfolio to enable the workloads of the future.

“Intel’s leading data centre 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.”

Recently, CoreWeave signed a new order form under its April 2023 master services agreement with Nvidia for an initial $6.3bn.

Under the deal, Nvidia will purchase any unsold cloud computing capacity from CoreWeave.

Meanwhile, the UK has announced £150bn ($204.5bn) in inward investment from US companies during the recent State Visit of the US President.

British company Nscale is collaborating with American companies OpenAI and Nvidia to create Stargate UK, aimed at developing new AI infrastructure in the UK.