There have been rumors of NVIDIA peeking at the possibilities of developing x86-compatible processor. There haven't been any real proofs of this even if statements made by NVIDIA staff have hinted that there are plans. Rumors have grown stronger as the company has started hiring engineers that used to work at x86 code morphers Transmeta.
NVIDIA is afraid of being left out of the x86 market when both AMD and Intel have started integrating graphics circuits into their CPUs, which will harm NVIDIA's chipset sales and to some extent its share of the discrete graphics card market.
''Nvidia could become a supplier of x86 CPUs by necessity to preserve both GPU and chipset revenue.'' - Doug Freedman, analyst at Broadpoint AmTech
According to analysts NVIDIA is believed to be working on its own x86 solution where acquisitions of other processor makers, e.g. VIA Technologies, is far less likely. x86 licenses does not transfer that way either.
At the same time there are other things pointing to NVIDIA getting ready for battle on the x86 processor market. The hiring of x86 CPU engineers could be helpful for its development of GPGPU technologies. NVIDIA haven't made any official statements which means all of this comes served with a pinch of salt but right now it feels like the company is in enough trouble without the incredible tough x86 market.
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