In the mid-2000s, AMD considered acquiring NVIDIA, but the deal fell through due to Jensen Huang's demand to remain CEO of the combined company. Subsequently, AMD bought ATI, and NVIDIA continued its independent development, becoming one of the leaders in the technology market.
The story of the failed merger
AMD's missed opportunity
Currently, NVIDIA occupies a leading position in the technology market, significantly ahead of such giants as Intel and AMD in capitalization. However, few people know that AMD was once close to acquiring NVIDIA. Recently, a former AMD engineer shared information that the company missed a chance to buy NVIDIA at an early stage of its development. The reason was the refusal of Jensen Huang, the founder of NVIDIA, who insisted on retaining the post of CEO in the event of a merger of the companies.
Insider Memories
Hemant Mohapatra, who worked as an engineer at AMD in the mid-to-late 2000s, revealed interesting details about that period. He participated in the development of various AMD processors, including graphics and central processors. Mohapatra witnessed how AMD realized its potential in the graphics card market but initially failed to realize it. He published his memories on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
So now that Nvidia has far outstripped the market cap of AMD and Intel, I thought this would be a fun story to tell. I spent 6+yrs @ AMD engg in mid to late 2000s helping design the CPU/APU/GPUs that we see today. Back then it was unimaginable for AMD to beat Intel in market-cap... pic.twitter.com/bYCS5vY0QO
— Hemant Mohapatra (@MohapatraHemant) July 5, 2024
Failed merger
Mohapatra spoke about negotiations on the merger of AMD and NVIDIA. However, Jensen Huang, having a long-term development strategy for NVIDIA in the direction of proprietary CUDA technology, did not want to give up his vision. He set a condition: the sale of NVIDIA is possible only if he retains the post of CEO of the merged company. As a result, the then head of AMD, Hector Ruiz, decided to acquire ATI, the manufacturer of Radeon video cards.
Story Confirmed
Phil Park, another AMD veteran, confirmed the accuracy of this story. Although he had never met Mohapatra in person and had some disagreements about his other recollections, Park confirmed the veracity of Huang's demand for the CEO position. He also added his comments to some of Mohapatra's posts.
I've never met Hemant, and though there are a few things where I have a different opinion, the anecdote about Jensen wanting to be CEO is true. https://t.co/TJjYeGSZvE
— Phil Park (@philparkbot) July 5, 2024
NVIDIA in the past
In those years, NVIDIA was a small company whose video cards were popular among enthusiast gamers. However, ATI had a large market share. According to Mohapatra, AMD did not then consider NVIDIA as a serious competitor at the level of Arm or Intel.
Glossary
- NVIDIA is an American technology company specializing in the development of graphics processing units and systems based on chip
- AMD - Advanced Micro Devices, an American company, manufacturer of processors and video cards
- Intel - the world's largest manufacturer of microprocessors
- CUDA - proprietary parallel computing technology from NVIDIA
- ATI - former Canadian GPU manufacturer acquired by AMD
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Answers to questions
Why didn't NVIDIA become part of AMD?
What development strategy was NVIDIA pursuing at that time?
How did AMD react to the missed opportunity to acquire NVIDIA?
What was NVIDIA's market position during that period?
Who confirmed the information about the failed merger between AMD and NVIDIA?
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Discussion of the topic – AMD and NVIDIA: The story of a failed deal that changed the industry
20 years ago, AMD was close to buying NVIDIA, but the deal fell through because of one person. Today, NVIDIA is a technology giant with a market capitalization larger than Intel and AMD.
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Isabella
What a twist! 😮 Can you imagine if AMD had bought NVIDIA then? I wonder what the video card market would look like now?
Hans
Yeah, Isabella! Huang clearly saw NVIDIA's potential. His persistence as CEO proved key. I wonder how different the fate of CUDA would have been if the merger had gone through? 🤔
Pierre
I agree with Hans! Huang is a true visionary. His strategy with CUDA completely changed the game in the field of parallel computing. Without it, NVIDIA would hardly have achieved such success in AI and supercomputers.
Sofia
I think AMD missed a huge opportunity. 😕 Imagine if they combined their CPU with an NVIDIA GPU! This could completely change the balance of power in the market.
Boris
All this is nonsense. What difference does it make who bought whom or not? All the same, it’s neither cold nor hot for a simple user. Prices for video cards were still astronomical.
Lucia
Boris, don't tell me! 😊 Competition between AMD and NVIDIA has led to significant advances in graphics technology. We all benefit from this rivalry!
Andrzej
Lucia is right! 👍 Look at modern games and graphics. Without the competition of NVIDIA and AMD, we would not have made such progress. And who knows, maybe the merger would have slowed down development?
Isabella
Great point, Andrzej! 🎮 Indeed, competition drives progress. Still, I wonder what AI technology would look like now if AMD and NVIDIA teamed up? Maybe we would have already flown to Mars? 😄