NVIDIA and Intel Join Forces to Develop Next-Gen SoC, Reshaping the Future of PCs
On September 18, 2025, NVIDIA and Intel announced a landmark collaboration to develop a new generation of x86 SoCs, integrating Intel’s CPU architecture with NVIDIA’s RTX GPU via NVLink for the first time at the CPU level. NVIDIA also invested $5 billion to acquire a 4.9% stake in Intel, signaling its serious expansion into the PC market.
This partnership officially marks NVIDIA’s entry into the x86 arena long dominated by Intel and AMD. Jensen Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, described the collaboration as a union of two leading platforms designed to accelerate AI and graphics computation while pushing the boundaries of PC performance.
However, the industry faces significant operational challenges as a result. Jason Chen, CEO of Acer, noted that the introduction of a new x86 competitor will complicate inventory and logistics, requiring manufacturers to support multiple motherboard designs, chipsets, cooling systems, and BIOS configurations. These additional variables could increase both production costs and complexity.
PC makers will also need to manage overlapping product lines to prevent market confusion and prepare dedicated support teams for differing drivers and firmware between Intel-NVIDIA SoCs and competing solutions. As a result, supply chain management is expected to become more demanding.
For NVIDIA, entering the x86 space expands the reach of its RTX and CUDA ecosystems, especially in gaming laptops and AI-focused devices. Yet, the company will still face technical challenges, such as ensuring seamless OS support and optimizing CPU-GPU integration over NVLink, which promises up to 14 times the bandwidth of PCIe.
Industry experts view this collaboration as a fundamental shift that could reshape every aspect of the PC ecosystem — from manufacturing and motherboard design to marketing and after-sales support. Consumers, meanwhile, should keep an eye on how this new generation of x86 SoCs will affect the pricing and performance of upcoming desktops and laptops, potentially bringing them head-to-head with AMD’s APU lineup.
Source: Wccftech
