NVIDIA CEO not interested in acquiring VIA

Speaking to CNet, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang suggested neither Nvidia nor VIA are interested in acquiring each other's business.

That the two might be considering such an option has been doing the rumour-mill rounds of late, primarily because pundits feel Nvidia desperately needs to get into the processor business if it's to remain relevant.

AMD is busily attempting to integrate graphics processing cores into future 'Fusion' CPUs. Intel is taking a similar approach, having said its upcoming 'Nehalem' processor family will include models that incorporate a graphics engine.

Both moves are fuelled by the shift of functionality off ancillary northbridge chips and onto the processor. First it was the memory controller, and now we're looking at integrated graphics coming on board too.

If Nvidia isn't to lose out, it has to follow suit, the argument runs. And since buying a CPU maker is easier than kick-starting development on its own, the pundits look around to see who Nvidia could buy and settle upon VIA.

Huang's point is that there's plenty yet to Nvidia to do in the graphics arena before it needs to worry about the longevity of its core business. Fusion and Nehalem are a threat to Nvidia's chipset sales, not its discrete GPU lines. Yes, Intel has its eye on that too, with its 'Larrabee' chip, but it's very hard to imagine Nvidia not working on a ray-tracing chip of its own, if only as an insurance policy.