Nvidia is in discussions with Intel to use Intel’s foundry services, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told reporters Wednesday, although any decision to work together will be a lengthy one.
Calling Intel “an excellent partner,” Huang said Intel is “interested in us using their foundries and we’re interested in exploring it…. We’re open-minded to considering Intel and delighted by the efforts they are making.”
But Huang also said that discussions to create a partnership with a foundry “take a long time…it’s not just about desire…It takes a fair amount of time and a lot of deep discussion. We are not buying milk here.”
Nvidia designs CPUs, GPUs and other components but does not manufacture or assemble them and has relied heavily on TSMC and more recently Samsung to manufacture chips along its designs. Those relationships “took years to cultivate,” Huang said.
Noting that TSMC works with Nvidia along with 300 other chip design companies, he described the relationship between designers and manufacturers as a kind of “dance with all and not for the faint of heart…It’s management and culture on top of technology and projects.”
Huang said he is “encouraged by the work at Intel and the direction they have.” Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger set the company last year on a path toward providing foundry services to other companies, even competitors, and has announced plans to construct two new fabs in Arizona, another two fabs in Ohio as well as two fabs in Germany that could potentially be locations to produce chips for Nvidia.
While Intel has been a partner through the years, it has also competed against Nvidia on CPU designs and other products. Huang said Intel as a competitor is not a concern, however.
“Intel has known our secrets for years,” he said, and ticked off a variety of companies that have known Nvidia chip roadmap plans that aren’t publicly shared. “We are sophisticated and mature enough to realize we have to collaborate…On one hand we compete with many companies and partner deeply with them and rely on them.
“We’re quite comfortable working with collaborators like Intel,” Huang added. “We’ve overcome paranoia. Paranoia is just paranoia. There’s nothing to be paranoid about. People want to win, but there’s nothing to be concerned about. It has served us well.”
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