Aug 31 (Reuters) - Nvidia said on Monday it was investing $3.5 billion in Taiwan's MediaTek, the latest deal to widen its financial ties across the AI industry.
The move follows Nvidia's up to $105 billion guarantee earlier this month for OpenAI's Ohio data-center lease and could intensify scrutiny of arrangements where the chipmaker funds companies that help drive demand for its AI products.
As part of Monday's deal, MediaTek, Taiwan's largest chip designer, will let customers use Nvidia's technology to design their own AI chips that connect directly to Nvidia's larger computing systems.
The technology, called NVLink Fusion, gives chipmakers ready-made connectors and specialized memory so custom AI chips can plug into Nvidia's larger data-center systems.
It saves customers time and engineering costs, letting them focus on their own chip designs rather than building connections to Nvidia's systems from scratch.
Nvidia and MediaTek will also keep working together on chips for personal computers and technology for AI-powered vehicles.
MediaTek said Alphabet, a key AI infrastructure partner, participated in the bond offering, but did not disclose the size of the search giant's investment.
The latest deal builds on a broader relationship between Nvidia and MediaTek. In June, the companies teamed up to launch the RTX Spark PC chip, aiming to bring AI features directly to laptops and desktops.
Monday's announcement of Nvidia's investment in MediaTek's convertible bonds comes days after the California-based chipmaker provided a rare long-term outlook of 70% revenue growth for next year, with CEO Jensen Huang saying AI had reached an "inflection point" as the technology moves from experimentation to real-world deployment.
MediaTek, meanwhile, has been pushing beyond smartphones into AI chips for data centers, backed by a $5 billion financing plan approved in July.
Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli
Source: Reuters