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by Mike Zazaian October 5, 2006 - 11:36am, 1 Comment

Rumors that processor behemoth Intel is looking to acquire graphics company Nvidia made their way through Wall Street today, with Nvidia shares jumping 8 percent in a matter of hours.

Notions of the acquisition have been flying around since July, when Intel’s key competitor AMD purchased ATI, Nvidia’s primary competition. It’s unclear as to exactly how the speculation started, but whatever the cause it seems to have been enough to stir up Nvidia’s stock to the tune of 8 percent, up $2.32 to $30.62 US. Bill Lefkowitz, an options strategist at New-York-based vFinance Investments commented, There is speculation that Intel will make an acquisition announcement tonight.

Some skeptics feel that the merger won’t go through, however, as Nvidia’s asking price would be nearly three times that of ATI. Another argument is that Intel already has a graphics department, producing integrated graphics solutions that ship with a number of mobile and desktop computers. Intel’s chips don’t match up to the pure performance of Nvidia’s, however, and are more of a passable low-end solution rather than the aggressive high-end products that Nvidia offers.

[via Reuters]