Nvidia to license GPU tech to other companies

Nvidia is planning to make its graphics tech available to smartphone and tablet manufacturers, putting it in competition with Qualcomm and opening the door to deals with Apple and Samsung.

CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told Reuters that Nvidia will license graphics cores and visual patents, helping it reach new markets and take advantage of smartphone and tablet demand in ways it can't do just shilling its own chips and devices like the Shield.

"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," he said.

"We will target customers where their capacity and desire to build their own application processors is great. This is a way for us to engage customers who don't like to buy chips because they like to create their own, because they have the capacity, creativity and now the scale to build their own," he added.

Currently, the majority of smartphone and tablet manufacturers use Qualcomm parts, while Apple and Samsung produce many of their own components. Apple also utilises graphics tech from Imagination Technologies, a UK-based rival partially owned by Apple and Intel.

Nvidia's Tegra mobile processor is considered pretty top-notch, but very few devices use it at present. The expansion of Nvidia tech to other devices could give mobile gaming graphics a substantial boost.