142: Huang confirms sale of mobile chip business.

In the graphics card sector, AMD had snatched away a certain market share, and Old Huang was still thinking about grabbing a bit of the mobile processor market to subsidize his own graphics card business.

The heavily invested Tegra 4 was like a rat crossing the street; when Old Huang reached out to mobile phone manufacturers again, they wouldn't even see him. Even if they did and heard him talk about processor procurement, they repeatedly refused.

These manufacturers probably had only one thought in mind—you screwed over Xiaomi and now you want to screw me too? Xiaomi's cautionary tale was right in front of them.

"Stop arguing!"

"I'm still the one in charge of Nvidia!"

Old Huang looked at the bickering crowd, stood up directly, and said. Previously, HTC said the performance of Tegra 2 and Tegra 3 wasn't enough. Someone among those present came up with an idea to modify a PC processor and put it on a phone, claiming it would definitely be powerful. Coupled with Nvidia's unique graphics card technology, it would surely be popular in the market.

Thus, the Tegra 4 with 72 display cores was born.

Facts also proved that PC hardware and mobile hardware are two completely different things.

"Now our Tegra 4's reputation is ruined. Chinese consumers turn away as soon as they hear our processor is inside, and other manufacturers around the world don't dare to choose our processors anymore."

"I have now decided to package and sell the technology and patents of the mobile processor business. This way, we can recover some funds for the company to deal with the competition in the graphics card market."

You should know that life for Nvidia's graphics cards isn't particularly easy right now either. The issues with Tegra 4 were being widely publicized online by competitors, even affecting their own graphics card business.

So Old Huang decided to cut the Gordian knot and quickly find a buyer to take the mobile processor business off his hands.

"Sell it?"

"Mr. Huang! No, this is our department's hard work. We are already designing a new processor and believe there will be results soon."

People in Nvidia's mobile processor business department were certainly not happy about being cut. If Old Huang sold the business, they would definitely be 'optimized.'

Old Huang curled his lip. Damn it, by the time you guys design it, it'll be too late!

"I say, Chris, wake up. Even if you design a new 4G chip, will any manufacturers still choose us?"

The head of the graphics card department was certainly happy to see the mobile chip business cut, so he spoke up mockingly.

Company resources are limited. If a portion is allocated to the mobile chip department, the resources for the graphics card department will decrease accordingly. Back during Tegra 2, he had been wishing the company would hurry up and cut the mobile chip business.

As it turned out, Old Huang persisted for another two generations. Now, with Tegra 4 failing, he was definitely going to launch a counterattack.

"No need to say more. I have already discussed it with the investors to cut the mobile chip business and sell the entire operation as a package. Patents and such can be sold or licensed."

"Then, the recovered funds will be reinvested into the graphics card sector, which is our primary business."

Old Huang spoke these words slowly, and the people from the graphics card department began to applaud. Since the investors had decided, the matter was basically settled.

"So now, let's stop discussing whether to sell or not!"

"What needs to be discussed now is how to sell it and to whom."

"You can share your thoughts now."

Old Huang looked up at these Nvidia executives and said.

"Mr. Huang, I think selling to Qualcomm is a good choice. They are already leaders in communications and chips; they definitely won't pass up the patents in our hands."

"Inappropriate. I know Qualcomm's nature. As soon as we release news that we're selling, Qualcomm will definitely drive the price down. In the end, they'll stall us to prevent other companies from buying, while refusing to pay a high price."

"What about Texas Instruments? Their mobile processor business also needs to expand."

"Don't even mention Texas Instruments. They can barely protect themselves now; they might even sell their own mobile chip business this year."

"Mr. Huang, what about Xiaomi? Someone from Dami Company mentioned once before that they wanted to make their own processors and asked if we could license some patents to them."

"Xiaomi?" An awkward smile appeared on Old Huang's face. He had just screwed over Lei Jun a few months ago, and now he was going to sell the mobile chip business to him.

Would Lei Jun even dare to buy it?

"We can use Lin Bing to test the waters and see what Lei Jun thinks."

"After all, in China, the only company interested in our technology that doesn't pose a threat is Dami Company."

Although Old Huang is of Chinese descent, he and the Nvidia executives are now thoroughbred Americans. Therefore, companies like Huawei and Red Star, which have their own processors, are not within their consideration at all.

Wouldn't selling to Red Star and Huawei enhance the research and development strength of those two companies? These Americans are quite shrewd.

Xiaomi currently has no R&D strength in chips. Selling to them poses no threat to their country, and it would be easy to get approval from the higher-ups. Furthermore, Xiaomi is interested in Nvidia's chip business, so the chance of success is relatively high.

As for Fruit or Samsung?

Don't even think about it, unless Old Huang is willing to sell at a bargain price.

"Mr. Huang, I believe as long as the price is right, Dami Company will definitely be interested."

"Alright. Although I did screw over Lei Jun a bit with the Tegra 4, I'm still very confident in our technology."

"After testing the waters with Lei Jun through Lin Bing, I will personally negotiate with Lei Jun."

Old Huang made the final decision. Nvidia would completely abandon the mobile chip business and focus on its own graphics cards.

Shortly thereafter, Lin Bing, authorized by Lei Jun, had a secret meeting with Nvidia's people.

But in this first contact, neither side revealed their hand, and both seemed to be asking for an exorbitant price.

Nvidia hoped to package the chip business and sell it for a good price to gain more capital.

Xiaomi also bet on the fact that if Nvidia tried to sell to others, they probably wouldn't buy it. They hoped to get more technology and patents at a cheaper price.

Lin Bing's several contacts with Nvidia's people yielded no substantial progress. Lin Bing wanted to package and take away Nvidia's chip patents and the chip design currently in development with an integrated 4G baseband for less than 200 million us dollar.

Nvidia wanted to license some patents to Xiaomi and transfer others, asking for a price of 380 million us dollar.

In Lei Jun's words, Nvidia wanted to treat Xiaomi like a sucker.