Intel wanted to take over Nvidia for $20 billion in 2005 – today it is worth more than $3 trillion

In 2005, the then head of Intel, Paul Otellini, approached the company’s board of directors with an unexpected proposal – to absorb Nvidia for $20 billion. The New York Times recently learned about this. Today, Nvidia is worth more than $3 trillion, while Intel is worth less than $100 billion.

Image source: Rubaitul Azad / unsplash.com

Some members of Intel management admitted that Nvidia’s developments could play an important role in data centers in the future, and with the current boom in artificial intelligence technologies this is a fait accompli, but the board of directors opposed the idea of ​​​​a green takeover. It would be Intel’s most expensive acquisition yet, and the company had concerns about integrating the new acquisition.

Instead, Intel’s board of directors supported the project of its own Larabee graphics architecture, led by Pat Gelsinger, the company’s current CEO. The architecture used Intel x86 technologies, that is, the graphics processor had the features of a central one. As a result, Intel closed the project, although later it returned to the graphics direction with the Xe and Arc projects that are relevant today. In the field of AI, Intel still made several acquisitions: in 2016, these were Nervana Systems and Movidius, and in 2019, Habana Labs. But none of them compare to where Nvidia finds itself today with its $3 trillion capitalization. Today, Intel Gaudi 3 is positioned as an inexpensive alternative to its accelerators, but there is an opinion that the company has missed its chance in the field of AI. In the mass market, Intel’s lot remains NPU components for its own central processors.

The company had another chance to get into the AI ​​space early—in 2017 and 2018, it could have bought a stake in OpenAI when it was a small nonprofit startup. But then-CEO Bob Swan rejected the deal, saying the AI ​​models would be a long time coming to the general market.