Friday, September 5, 2025

Whither Nvidia? (NVDA)

A Chinese company announces a new chip, NVDA gets knocked down 2 or 3%.

An American company announces a deal with Sam Altman, NVDA gets knocked down 2 or 3%.

Meanwhile, Nvidia is playing in an entirely different sandbox. From TrendForce News, September 5:

NVIDIA–MediaTek GB10 Collaboration Fuels $73B Acquisition Rumor—Why It May Not Happen 

NVIDIA and MediaTek are collaborating on the development of the GB10 superchip, with their complementary strengths making for a close partnership. This has even led some outlets, such as TechRadar, to speculate whether NVIDIA might consider a $73 billion acquisition of MediaTek. However, according to Anue, such a deal is unlikely to materialize and may simply be a market rumor.

As Anue notes, NVIDIA has transformed into an AI infrastructure company, gradually shifting from the chip level toward the system level, making a potential acquisition of MediaTek relatively limited in terms of system-level benefits.

The report indicates that NVIDIA’s core capabilities have already moved from chips to systems, and its supply chain has expanded beyond foundries and packaging houses to include cooling and PCB manufacturers. Given these ecosystem differences, acquiring MediaTek would likely bring limited advantages for NVIDIA on the system side, the report adds.

In addition, the rumored acquisition price is seen as too low, and regulators would likely impose strict scrutiny, further reducing the likelihood of such a deal. The report indicates that MediaTek is currently Taiwan’s third-largest company by market capitalization, behind only TSMC and Foxconn, and as Taiwan’s leading IC design firm, it holds critical strategic importance. Under geopolitical considerations, this rumored acquisition would be expected to face rigorous review.

NVIDIA–MediaTek Partnership on GB10

As TechRadar points out, the GB10, initially scheduled for release in July 2025 but since delayed, combines MediaTek’s CPU and memory design strengths with NVIDIA’s GPU expertise. By leveraging MediaTek’s system-on-chip design, NVIDIA has demonstrated how standard interfaces can integrate its Blackwell GPU into a streamlined, efficient package....

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