Will Intel eventually buy AMD?

[mrmt]

If you remove PC's, how big is Intel?

Intel server business generates enough operating profits to buy one AMD per quarter.

 

[Shehriazad]

Of all the companies...Intel had to be your idea? Come on...how unlikely does it get? I'd even say Samsung would buy AMD before Intel does...and that's already unlikely.

 

[Murloc]

antitrust agencies would stop any such acquisition.
If the situation keeps worsening maybe at some point they'll just sell the graphics branch and then sell the IP and die in a hole.
At that point, hopefully the situation will have changed enough to avoid a monopoly in the desktop space.

 

[Nothingness]

Name one x86 competitor to Intel in the entire history of x86 that Intel has EVER bought.

Indeed. They just have to wait for x86 companies to crash and get their engineers :biggrin:

 

[Madpacket]

Thanks for the responses, some are very valid.

Keep in mind i'm not saying they would buy them [today], it would be in a few years time (2-5) if or once ARM tech starts treading on Intel's bread and butter (the data center, maybe Apple will switch away from x86 or focus on iOS on the desktop?, maybe the market matures enough where traditional desktop applications become workable mostly on portable devices?, maybe the emerging markets will dictate the how some of this turns out).

Anyway, I think being x86 and sharing so much tech in the past it would make sense for Intel to acquire AMD for both tech integration and patent portfolio rather than say someone like Samsung who is busy enough with their big.LITTLE ARM tech etc.



Much of this is speculation but Intel does have the cash reserves to pay off any or all debts AMD may have that ties them to previous obligations. Intel has shown they care a ton about integrated graphics, just look at the die space allocation between 86 to graphics on their 14nm chips. I would imagine they would be much better off with the Radeon brand and HSA like integration especially on the low end.

 

[AnandThenMan]

Name one x86 competitor to Intel in the entire history of x86 that Intel has EVER bought.

Well let's see. Intel holds x86 patents and does not allow anyone to use said unless under severe duress (thank for IBM for at least trying to prevent a monopoly) I'd say you asked the most loaded question of the year.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Well let's see. Intel holds x86 patents and does not allow anyone to use said unless under severe duress (thank for IBM for at least trying to prevent a monopoly) I'd say you asked the most loaded question of the year.

Most x86 companies gave up due to economic reasons, not IP reasons.

Thats why there are 4(or more) x86 makers left and not 25 or so.

 

[rainy]

The reverse Midas touch of AMD management is working wonders on their graphics division. They went from almost 50% of the dGPU market to 24% (and counting) since the introduction of GCN.

I would like to know why you're lying?
In Q4 2011 just before GCN introduction, AMD GPU market share was 36.3 percent which is quite far from almost 50.

Btw, with that "terrible" GCN they were able to achieve a record 25 percent of professional GPU market in Q2 2014 (no results for Q3/Q4)
"Surprisingly" it was not possible with "great" VLIW5/VLIW4 microarchitecture.

http://jonpeddie.com/press-releases...n-board-shipments-down-6.5-from-last-quarter/
http://jonpeddie.com/press-releases...breaks-out-to-record-setting-quarter-in-q214/

 

[ShintaiDK]

I would like to know why you're lying?
In Q4 2011 just before GCN introduction, AMD GPU market share was 36.3 percent which is quite far from almost 50.

Btw, with that "terrible" GCN they were able to achieve a record 25 percent of professional GPU market in Q2 2014 (no results for Q3/Q4)
"Surprisingly" it was not possible with "great" VLIW5/VLIW4 microarchitecture.

http://jonpeddie.com/press-releases...n-board-shipments-down-6.5-from-last-quarter/
http://jonpeddie.com/press-releases...breaks-out-to-record-setting-quarter-in-q214/

Your numbers completely ignored mobile GPUs tho.

The JPR AIB Report tracks computer graphics boards, which carry discrete graphics chips. They are used in desktop PCs, workstations, servers, and some other devices such as scientific instruments.

 

[rainy]

Your numbers completely ignored mobile GPUs tho.

I didn't know you work for him as spokesman.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I didn't know you work for him as spokesman.

No need to get personal, just because you didnt read what you linked.

I can help you a bit on the way.

 

[rainy]

No need to get personal, just because you didnt read what you linked.

I can help you a bit on the way.

Unfortunately, you're completely wrong - those 24 percent are from that report:
http://jonpeddie.com/press-releases...own-in-q4-nvidia-increases-market-share-lead/

 

[Phynaz]

Most x86 companies gave up due to economic reasons, not IP reasons.

Thats why there are 4(or more) x86 makers left and not 25 or so.

Well Intel played hardball too, such as not licensing interconnects to the other x86 makers.

 

[Roland00Address]

If you remove PC's, how big is Intel?

Huge

Just their server division makes more than 11 billion revenue per year, and 5 billion income for that division.

To put that in comparison, AMD assets is a little over 4 billion, but they have a lot of debt so their total equity is barely over 500 million. The value of all their stock on the stock exchange if you want to buy the company is a little over 2.4 billion.

Now Intel's pc group revenue is 33 billion and the income is 11 billion, and if you add up all the other divisions revenue such as software and the internet of things is about another 10 billion.

Here are the 2013 numbers
http://www.intc.com/intel-annual-report/2013/10K/30-results-of-operations.html

 

[mrmt]

I would like to know why you're lying?
In Q4 2011 just before GCN introduction, AMD GPU market share was 36.3 percent which is quite far from almost 50.

Btw, with that "terrible" GCN they were able to achieve a record 25 percent of professional GPU market in Q2 2014 (no results for Q3/Q4)
"Surprisingly" it was not possible with "great" VLIW5/VLIW4 microarchitecture.

Sorry, it was close to 40%, I . But still, to shrink AMD market share in relative terms by 30% is no easy feat. One more success like this and their GPU business is toast.

 

[jhu]

Intel server business generates enough operating profits to buy one AMD per quarter.

Their Itanium business is larger than AMD.

 

[Batmeat]

The easy answer is 'no'. Government will step in and prevent the acquisition because a monopoly will be created on the cpu market. If I remember right, AT&T tried something similar 20 years ago. More than likely, another company will buy AMD and keep the moniker like Toshiba did with OCZ.

 

[tynopik]

Intel does not need AMD gpu tech. They can develop their own.

They've been working on it for over 10 years and it's still pathetic

They just don't care: dgpu market is shrinking anyways.

Of course Intel doesn't care about dGPU, but they desperately need more powerful iGPUs

They can design more powerful hd graphics, but they have zero interest in doing that

crystalwell says otherwise

intel hd's are doing good, nobody complains.

is this the intel distortion field? seriously?

To name one prominent customer, Apple has complained REPEATEDLY about Intel's pathetic iGPUs

 

[mrmt]

is this the intel distortion field? seriously?

To name one prominent customer, Apple has complained REPEATEDLY about Intel's pathetic iGPUs

Apple ships expensive CPUs with Intel-only pathetic iGPUs.

 

[Yuriman]

They've been working on it for over 10 years and it's still pathetic

Of course Intel doesn't care about dGPU, but they desperately need more powerful iGPUs

To name one prominent customer, Apple has complained REPEATEDLY about Intel's pathetic iGPUs

Tbh, I think Intel's iGPUs are in a pretty decent place right now. They work fine for media acceleration, have similar 4K support to AMD's offerings, support the latest directx features, and the better ones will even run most modern games at low settings. Quicksync is pretty neat too. They aren't as fast in games as AMD's, but frankly AMD's iGPUs are in a pretty awkward position.

I'd like to see an AMD iGPU paired with an Intel dual or quad core, memory controller and eDRAM, but outside of games (which are a niche market), Intel's offerings are fine.

 

[tynopik]

Apple ships expensive CPUs with Intel-only pathetic iGPUs.

and they aren't happy about it

and what does an unhappy Apple do?

 

[ShintaiDK]

and they aren't happy about it

and what does an unhappy Apple do?

Got any edvidence of this?

And what would the alternative be? Because it isnt AMD or ARM based.

 

[mrmt]

and they aren't happy about it

and what does an unhappy Apple do?

Apple could do something about it if it wanted to, and yet they prefer to not to. They could add a dGPU for instance, but they don't, and given the amount of unsold inventory at AMD they could get a hell of a deal there if their processors were barely up to the task.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Adding 10-20W TDP isnt exactly Apples dream either.

 

[exar333]

AMD should just dump GF and have Intel fab their CPUs. Win/win.