Nvidia to licence graphics tech to third parties

PC graphics expert Nvidia is to begin licensing out its technology to other device makers.

Reuters reports that the company’s chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in San Francisco that licensing its graphics cores and visual patents will help Nvidia tap into the growing mobile computing markets.

"The bottom line is the world has changed and we’re expanding our business model to serve markets that we historically could not serve by selling chips alone," Huang said.

"The opportunity went from a few million game consoles a year to now, billions of devices per year. The opportunity is now much bigger.

"I think the shape of companies in the future will look increasingly hybrid. Microsoft licenses software, they sell devices, they have services. All of the above. I think you’ll see more and more companies that are like that."

The move will place Nvidia in competition with the likes of Qualcomm and Samsung – a brave new world compared to its familiar battles with AMD, which in itself is an interesting case.

The numbers suggest that Nvidia is in a fitter state than its PC rival, but an aggressive marketing push for AMD that has seen it provide the innards for both PS4 and Xbox One and push its PC graphics card with extensive bundled software offers has arguably placed Nvidia on the back foot.

Indeed, AMD is in the process of completely repositioning itself as a key player in the gaming market. There are also concerns that developers creating games for the AMD architecture of the next-gen consoles may lead to a weakening of Nvidia tech in the PC sector.