Nvidia Looking to Buy Into VIA?

Nvidia could be purchasing a chunk of VIA, which has the possibilities spinning around in our minds.

Subject to shareholder approval, VIA will soon go ahead with a private placement of up to 300 million shares NT$9-12 ($0.27-0.35), which aims to boost the company’s capital.

According to various reports, though none entirely official, Nvidia is the forerunner to pick up a sizable portion of those shares.

Such a development, while interesting, wouldn’t be completely surprising. Given now clearly publicized cold war between Intel and Nvidia over the former’s Atom CPU and the latter’s Ion platform.

It’s no secret that the second generation Ion platform will support the VIA Nano (as well as the full Intel line), so Nvidia could just be investing in its own future.

There could also be lines drawn to Nvidia’s interest in entering the CPU market. Nvidia’s Michael Hara, senior VP of investor relations, said during a conference an Nvidia-branded x86 CPU is a certainly within the next several years. “The question is not so much I think if; I think the question is when," said Hara. “I think some time down the road it makes sense to take the same level of integration that we’ve done with Tegra."

Nvidia partnering with VIA could conveniently skirt by the issue of obtaining an x86 license from Intel, something VIA already holds.

We’ll know more after VIA’s investor’s meeting in June.