Nvidia’s purchase of a $5bn stake in Intel is not a good investment. That’s not a reflection of Intel per se. It’s perfectly possible that the US chipmaker’s shares, currently just half of their peak, could perform marvellously in the coming years. But listed businesses taking small stakes in each other is almost always a poor use of shareholders’ capital.
Companies that invest in their peers are doing something shareholders can do themselves. Nvidia bought stock at slightly below the prevailing market price. It has not claimed any special perks for its money: no board seats, no unusual voting rights. Its 4 per cent stake will be too small to stop a takeover of Intel by another, should such a thing ever present itself.
The best thing that can be said about the investment, which accompanied a pledge to make chips together, is that it’s so small that Nvidia shareholders won’t care. The company, which makes the go-to silicon for the artificial intelligence boom, had roughly $57bn of cash and easily-sellable securities on its balance sheet at the end of July. Its investment needs are minimal: its capital expenditure last year was just $3.4bn. And of course, next to Nvidia’s $4.3tn market capitalisation, the amount is a trifle.