AMD to get strategic investments from Chinese CPU maker?

Rumors are spreading that struggling AMD may get a cash injection from China, VR World writes earlier rumors about an outright takeover are unlikely but that AMD is likely to receive strategic investments from China throughout 2015-2016. Earlier reports indicated that China's BLX intended to takeover AMD but such a plan is unlikely due to legal concerns from Intel in regards to the x86 license and regulatory issues from US authorities.

The site learned that Loongson Technology, a CPU joint venture between Beijing-based chip designer BLX IC Design Corp, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Computing Technology, is set to make key investments into AMD's product lines and technologies.

Loongson and AMD have worked together before in the past. AMD’s HyperTransport and PCI South as well as North bridges were in previous Godson silicon, so for Loongson AMD is not entirely foreign territory. The two opened an R&D center in December 2003 in order to develop what the two hoped would be something to counter the goliath of Intel.

Investing in AMD’s various technologies and product lines would be a much easier transaction for Loongson. It would not have to deal with the regulatory burden the US government might impose, nor would it need to negotiate an x86 license from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC). It is not yet clear what the end result of such investments might look like, but it could be that Loongson markets future Godson systems with more AMD inside — such as GCN GPU architecture.

Loongson is best known for its line of MIPS-based Godson processors. The Chinese firm has set aside 120 million yuan (around US$19.2 billion) for a series of acquisitions and strategic investments. We don't know how much money AMD is going to get but it seems like it could be quite substantial.