Nvidia has flatly denied reports that it is in talks to acquire a major PC manufacturer, describing the speculation as false after shares in Dell Technologies and HP surged on the initial story before reversing sharply.
"The media report is false; Nvidia is not engaged in discussions to acquire any PC maker," a company spokesperson said.
The denial came after technology publication SemiAccurate reported that Nvidia had been in negotiations for more than a year to acquire a large company in a deal that would reshape the PC and server landscape, with the report describing the talks as approaching finalisation.
SemiAccurate did not name the target, but investors quickly trained attention on Dell and HP, the second and third largest PC vendors globally by unit sales in 2025 behind Lenovo, according to analyst firm Omdia.
Dell shares rose 6.7% and HP gained 5.3% during Monday's session following the initial report, only to fall more than 3% each in after-hours trading once Nvidia issued its denial.
The episode reflects the market's appetite for speculation around vertical integration in AI hardware, a strategy that would see a chip designer extend its reach into full system design and branded hardware.
Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) currently power the data centres and AI infrastructure being built out by major cloud providers and enterprises worldwide, but the company sells those chips through partnerships with original equipment manufacturers rather than under its own hardware brand.
Acquiring a PC or server maker would theoretically allow Nvidia to bundle its chips into complete, integrated systems, echoing the tightly controlled hardware-software model pursued by Apple.
Analysts were sceptical of the deal's logic even before the denial, however, noting the stark difference in profit margins between chip design and PC manufacturing.
Gene Munster, managing partner at investment research firm Deepwater Asset Management, told CNBC that a deal was unlikely, citing Nvidia's considerably higher margins relative to those of PC makers.
Rather than a large Western OEM, some observers suggested a Taiwanese manufacturer such as MSI or Gigabyte would represent a more natural fit given those companies' longstanding relationships with Nvidia in the graphics card market, though that was also speculative.
Related reading
- Nvidia shows AI compression that cut a 6.5 GB game scene down to 970 MB, with no visible difference
- NVIDIA adds Marvell to NVLink Fusion ecosystem
- Nvidia says the open versus proprietary AI debate is the wrong argument
Separately, Nvidia is reported to be pursuing closer collaboration with Intel on x86 processor and data centre projects, suggesting the company may be exploring deeper hardware partnerships through commercial arrangements rather than outright acquisitions.
Nvidia's market capitalisation has grown to become one of the largest in the world on the back of data centre GPU demand, giving it the financial firepower to pursue large deals should it choose to do so.
The recap
- Report says NVIDIA is exploring buying Dell or HP
- Deal would combine NVIDIA chips with PC and server hardware
- Watch for confirmations from NVIDIA, Dell or HP
