Shares of Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) climbed in U.S. premarket trading on Wednesday after a media report suggested the company could play a role in Nvidia’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) next-generation semiconductor roadmap.
According to Taiwan-based DigiTimes, recent supply chain intelligence indicates that Nvidia plans to work with Intel on elements of its Feynman microarchitecture, a future graphics processing unit platform expected to launch in 2028. The report added that Apple is also expected to be involved in the collaboration.
Citing industry sources, DigiTimes said the companies are aiming for “low volume, low-tier, non-core” production runs. This approach would help comply with U.S. chipmaking requirements while preserving Nvidia’s strategic relationship with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer.
Under the reported plan, portions of the Feynman GPU’s input/output die — the chiplet responsible for handling communication between processing cores and external components — would be produced using Intel’s 18A or upcoming 14A manufacturing technologies. Intel is also expected to manage up to a quarter of the final packaging work, with TSMC handling the remaining 75%, DigiTimes said.
The report follows Nvidia’s disclosure in December that it had bought up to $5 billion worth of Intel shares. Alongside supporters such as Japan’s SoftBank and the U.S. government, Nvidia has emerged as a key backer for Intel, which has struggled in recent years with strategic setbacks that weighed on its financial performance.
Intel’s shares have been under pressure after the company last week issued a weaker-than-expected outlook for quarterly revenue and profit, warning that it is finding it difficult to keep pace with surging demand for AI server chips while margin pressure from a new PC processor lineup persists.