Intel has completed the sale of 214.78 million common shares to chipmaking giant Nvidia for $5 billion, closing a transaction first announced in September and formalised through a private placement. The shares were sold at $23.28 apiece, with the deal finalized on Boxing Day, according to regulatory filings. The investment gives Nvidia a major equity position in one of America’s most storied chipmakers.
Nvidia’s investment arrived as Intel was emerging from one of the most difficult periods in its modern history. The company reported an $18.8 billion annual loss in 2024, marking its first one since 1986, after years of execution missteps, intense competition, and heavy capital spending on new manufacturing plants. While Intel’s shares have since rebounded sharply, rising roughly 80% this year, the Nvidia transaction marks a direct cash infusion at a time when Intel has been balancing recovery with the enormous costs of rebuilding its manufacturing base. The deal was given the green light by US antitrust authorities earlier this month, removing the final regulatory hurdle. The Nvidia transaction also followed a separate agreement under which the US government acquired a 10% stake in Intel (that was in August for nearly $9 billion).
This development comes at a time when the Trump administration continues to focus on reinforcing US leadership in the advanced manufacturing sector. Semiconductor production has been elevated to a national economic and security priority, with the White House signaling stronger support for domestic fabrication, tighter scrutiny of foreign dependencies, and greater coordination between leading US tech firms. Nvidia’s capital infusion into Intel — one of the few American companies capable of operating at advanced manufacturing scale — seems to be in that vein.
Beyond capital, the deal tightly binds Nvidia’s AI computing stack with Intel’s x86 CPU ecosystem. Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang described the partnership as a fusion of “two world-class platforms,” pairing accelerated computing with the dominant CPU architecture that underpins much of global enterprise computing. For data centres, Intel will design custom x86 CPUs tailored specifically for Nvidia, which will then be integrated into Nvidia’s AI infrastructure platforms. For personal computing, Intel will manufacture system-on-chips that combine its CPUs with Nvidia RTX GPU chiplets, targeting high-performance consumer and professional devices.
The Intel investment fits into Nvidia’s broader strategy of embedding itself across every layer of the AI value chain. Earlier this year, Nvidia agreed to acquire key assets from AI chip startup Groq in a deal reportedly valued at $20 billion, reinforcing its push into inference and next-generation accelerators. The company has also committed up to $100 billion to OpenAI, a partnership expected to add at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia-powered AI data centre capacity to support ChatGPT and future models.
As for Intel, the firm’s financial performance has shown signs of improvement, with non-GAAP margins rebounding sharply in recent quarters and operating profitability exceeding internal guidance. Despite this, the company remains in the midst of a costly transformation, investing heavily in US and European fabs while facing competition from rivals. Currently, the company is in talks to acquire AI chip startup SambaNova for around $1.6 billion, including debt.
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