NVIDIA would entrust chip production to Intel
With its GPU market efforts, one would suppose NVIDIA and the Santa Clara behemoth are already considering one other as significant competitors.
However, the scenario is more nuanced, since NVIDIA CEO Huang Zhenshin recently stated that they are interested in Intel manufacturing the chips for them. He also stated that Intel is interested in examining the possibility of NVIDIA employing its chip facilities. Such debates, however, take a long period.
Last year, Intel chose to take over the production of chips designed by others and then announced multibillion-dollar initiatives in the United States and Europe to build massive chip factories and facilities.
Investors are naturally interested in what kind of public commitments chip design companies are making to make use of Intel manufacturing. Both Qualcomm and Amazon allegedly discussed becoming Intel customers last year.
Pat Gelsinger, Managing Director, has lately reaffirmed his interest and is in talks with NVIDIA.
The majority of NVIDIA chips are now manufactured by TSMC, and Huang highlighted that becoming a semiconductor company of this level requires not only procedures and technology but also cultural changes.
What about the secrets?
Everyone is probably wondering what would happen to NVIDIA's secrets during the story. The CEO of the company also questioned whether he was concerned about working with a competitor.
Huang stated that trust in industry partners and collaboration are critical, and NVIDIA has long collaborated with a variety of companies, including Intel. He then said that Intel had been privy to their secrets for years.
Kioxia and Western Digital are building a joint chip plant
Kioxia stated that the company is collaborating with Western Digital to establish a new plant to manufacture flash memory chips.
The factory will be developed in an existing Japanese plant at a cost of approximately $ 8.3 billion.
The construction of the earthquake-resistant plant is expected to begin in April of this year and to be completed in 2023. The parties did not want to share the investment's specifics.
In reality, Kioxia and Western Digital already co-manufacture flash memory chips in Japan. Toshiba owns 40.6 percent of Kioxia, which is still considering selling its stake and has asked Kioxia to go public as soon as feasible.
