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Report: Intel May Dump Nvidia, Turn To AMD For Radeon Graphics Licensing (pcworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the building-long-lasting-relationships dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: Intel could dump Nvidia for a licensing deal with AMD as the chip giant tries to prop up its patent portfolio. Currently, Intel is under a $1.5 billion licensing agreement with Nvidia, which the two companies signed in 2011. At the time, the two companies had spent years fighting each other in courts over patent licensing, and the agreement put all that litigation to rest. Intel's Nvidia deal is set to expire on March 17, 2017, and a recent report by Bloomberg claimed that Intel is now looking to cut a deal with AMD instead.

8 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Both Intel and AMD support FOSS. by EzInKy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This pairing makes much more sense then Intel and nVidia.

    --
    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    1. Re:Both Intel and AMD support FOSS. by dbIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This software patent shit is WHY nvidia doesn't have open drivers.

  2. Intel is no longer on-board by orledrat · · Score: 3, Funny

    THIS is how "switchable graphics" is done. Nvidia, take note!

  3. Life Support by alvinrod · · Score: 5, Interesting

    AMD might have a bit of an upswing once their new Zen CPUs come out next year, but they'll need to have made some serious strides because they can't afford another Bulldozer.

    My guess is that Intel is hedging and looking for a way to keep AMD around in order to avoid becoming a de facto monopoly in the x86 space, which they'd rather avoid. Give AMD enough cash to keep them upright while Intel continues to rake in big profits.

    1. Re:Life Support by jimbob6 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Intel already pays AMD a license for the AMD64 architecture.
      in fact there are several cross licensing deals between AMD and Intel.
      AMD isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

    2. Re:Life Support by perpenso · · Score: 4, Funny

      This is thought as the rationale for Microsoft to invest in Apple back in the 90s

      Well that worked, who is talking about the Microsoft monopoly these days. :-)

    3. Re:Life Support by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe you should take a look at their financials. This is a company that hasn't had positive net income since 2011. Zen needs to be at least somewhat competitive with Intel's offerings (or they need their GPU business to take a chunk out of NV) or AMD will eventually go bankrupt.

      Their stock price is so low right now that the entire company could be bought for a little over $2 billion if someone were so inclined. Intel makes more quarterly profit than AMD is worth as a company. From a certain perspective they're likely worth more if they closed shop entirely and just collected Intel's licensing fees, but Intel clearly doesn't want it to come to that.

  4. Pretty much... by AmazingRuss · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... The definition of conservatism.