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  • jjj - Thursday, November 9, 2017 - link

    Nvidia's valuation is absurdly high, good time for them to buy someone like AMD or Mediatek.
  • ViRGE - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    NVIDIA doesn't really need AMD's GPU business, and I dare say they likely don't want the semi-custom business either since it's so low margin. The only reason to buy AMD would be the CPU business. Which would make a lot of sense right now to counter Intel's new dGPU plans.

    However 10B+premium is a lot to pay for that business. The problem being that both AMD and NVIDIA are overvalued right now, though for different reasons.
  • jjj - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    AMD's GPU business would be divested ofc, egulators wouldn't ok the deal otherwise. Semi-custom can be kept or transitioned to another model but Nvidia does want consoles.

    AMD's valuation is low as they have a lot of growth ahead. They had 3-4% revenue share in PC and nothing really in server. Wait 2 years and they'll be worth a lot more than 20-30B. The main problem is that the PC reaches 0 units in less than a decade but this would be a defensive move against Intel and AMD going after the low and mid discrete market with integrated GPUs (with advanced packaging). Solutions like the recently announced Intel+AMD mutant would make it hard for Nvidia to compete, especially since the system memory is in play too- if the cPU has access to the VRM, the OEM can save a bunch on DRAM. They might end up isolated to high end only and that's risky, would be betting the farm on machine learning.
    Buying Mediatek would be more forward looking but not sure Nvidia can manage such a business and they might ruin it quickly -Mediatek needs to be humble and work hard for every cent while Nvidia is a bit of a diva.
  • Jumangi - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    Pretty sure that’s not an option. I believe there’s a clause with AMDs x86 license that if anyone buys them it’s void so nobody else can ever get the rights.
  • Yojimbo - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    "Pretty sure that’s not an option. I believe there’s a clause with AMDs x86 license that if anyone buys them it’s void so nobody else can ever get the rights."

    Yes, but Intel also relies on AMD patents. My question is whether Intel can not operate without those AMD patents, such that it would force them to sign a new patent cross license agreement with whoever buys AMD. Additionally, if Intel were to deny the right to make x86 processors to the only other major x86 process manufacturer, I wonder if perhaps governments would be inclined to investigate them for anti-trust violations, since x86 processors account for such a large majority of the market.
  • Yojimbo - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    "However 10B+premium is a lot to pay for that business. The problem being that both AMD and NVIDIA are overvalued right now, though for different reasons."

    If you think both AMD's and NVIDIA's currencies are overvalued then you shouldn't have a problem with NVIDIA paying a reasonable premium over AMD's current share price for a buy out using NVIDIA's stock as currency. If AMD were greatly overvalued with respect to NVIDIA then you might argue that NVIDIA would get bad value by buying AMD. If NVIDIA were overvalued with respect to AMD, then if you were an AMD shareholder you might demand a higher purchase price or demand that you receive cash for your shares instead of NVIDIA stock.
  • yannigr2 - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    They can't buy them and they don't need any of them.

    They can't buy AMD because all AMD's valuation is in the x86 license that Intel will not agree to be transfered to Nvidia. And Nvidia doesn't really need GCN.

    They have Tegra for ARM, they don't need Mediatek that just produces low cost ARM SOCs that everyone sees as inferior to anything from Samsung or Qualcomm.

    What Nvidia needs to do is hit the gas on it's Denver cores, because AMD and Intel are accelerating on the x86 platform, seeing that the ARM platform is closing the gap fast.
  • yannigr2 - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    Meaning, about Denver, that Nvidia needs multicore SOCs with Denver cores running Windows 10 as Snapdragon 835 as fast as possible.
  • jjj - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    Would help if you would abstain on matters you are not informed at all.
    They can buy AMD, the lawyers will figure it out, that's not an issue.
    Mediatek is a semiconductor giant and it would allow Nvidia to diversify andsurvive in consumer in current devices and future device. Nvidia has tried at failed. Your opinion on Mediatek is false and shaped by Qualcomm's marketing, shame on you for being so gullible. The way Mediatek has tortured Qualcomm is many times more than anyone else on this planet has been able to achieve and that includes Nvidia, Intel, Broadcom, TI, Marvel, Samsung, Huawei, Spreadtrum, ST and more. Qualcomm was sheltered by its illegal patent practices or Mediatek would be the market leader today in phones. Nvidia is likely not competent enough to run it , otherwise they should buy it.
  • yannigr2 - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    It would help if you just abstain on matters you are not informed at all. Except if you have figure it out already. Maybe you should send your solution to Nvidia's lawyers and open their eyes.

    As for Mediatek, it must be the first time I see a Mediatek fanboy. You are a rare occasion. At least on western tech sites. There are plenty of phones out there with two versions, one with a Mediatek SOC and one with Qualcomm. Anyone looking only at the looks and price of the phone, will go with the cheaper Mediatek option. Anyone cared about performance will spent the extra cash for the Qualcomm version. Mediatek is good for the ARM SOC market as much as AMD is good for the GPU and x86 market. But unfortunately they doin't really innovate as AMD is doing in it's markets. Mediatek just throws more clusters and cores in their SOCs. Nothing more. They even hit the brakes in their hi end development lately. It's Helio X30 looks to be something no one cares to use.
    By the way. If I am not mistaken you are an Intel+Nvidia fanboy. Strange to be with Mediatek in this case. :p
  • webdoctors - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link

    I've always been impressed with Mediatek's execution, they churn out chips fast and very low price. Their perf/power isn't the best, but their perf/$ is great and they're very competitive. I had assumed 2 years ago that they and HiSilicon would've dominated the market by now.

    I dont think Nvidia needs to do anything different, they're executing really well in their current domain.
  • boozed - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    That gross margin, jesus.
  • yannigr2 - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    The same as Intel's.
  • boozed - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    Jesus!
  • yannigr2 - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    They really destroyed all predictions this time.
  • Yojimbo - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    "They really destroyed all predictions this time."

    I expected something along these lines, except I was hoping data center revenue for the quarter would be closer to $600 M. All indications are that people are clamoring for the V100. With data center strong this past quarter, as shown by Amazon, Microsoft, and Intel's earnings, among others, I figured NVIDIA data center revenue would have a big jump. I guess the relatively slow ramp of that big chip (GV100) has left demand unsatisfied.
  • Yojimbo - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    "Q3 2018 also saw NVIDIA put $61 million to research and development, up around 72% sequentially and 57% year-to-year."

    NVIDIA spent $462 million on R&D in Q3 Fiscal Year 2018. They spent $416 million on R&D in Q2 FY2018 and $373 million on the same in Q3 FY2017.

    I am guessing you looked at the GAAP to non-GAAP reconciliation numbers to obtain your reported R&D figures. Those numbers only list the amount of R&D expenses paid for by stock-based compensation (employee stock option packages, I assume).
  • Nate Oh - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    You are correct, it's been fixed, thanks :)
  • SaolDan - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    2018???
  • Ian Cutress - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    Financial year doesn't align with calendar year. Always has been the way with NV
  • JamesBritton - Friday, November 10, 2017 - link

    This is how it looks - https://alphastreet.com/bite/d36ef8d
  • iwod - Saturday, November 11, 2017 - link

    I am wondering, if Nvidia should pour some resources into making POWER9 and future POWER10 CPU, Specially on the server.

    I dont see and market end for GPU yet, we only "just" started Deep and Machine Learning, there will be a lot of processing resources required for AV.

    Or they could start making a Server Implementation of ARMv8 Chip.

    Nvidia has been innovating on many different fronts, so I hope they have a very decent go at bringing Intel down, which i have no idea what they are doing most of the time.

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