In January 2021, Qualcomm announced the purchase of Nuvia and its chips for $1.4 billion. Qualcomm hoped that buying the company would help it regain a leading position in chip performance after years of high-profile patent licensing disputes with various groups. But the company wasn’t the only one interested, Google was also looking to make the acquisition, as were Microsoft and Intel.
According to The Information, Nuvia eventually became a takeover target for Google, Microsoft, Intel and Qualcomm, all of whom considered buying the company. It was ultimately Qualcomm that managed to get their hands on it. It is not specified what the amounts were for the offers from Microsoft, Intel and Google to try to complete the purchase.
A Google acquisition of Nuvia could at least have meant that Tensor – the name for Google’s chips in Pixel phones – wouldn’t be dependent on generic/standard Cortex cores from ARM as it is today. Another possibility is whether Google would have continued to work on a Tensor-powered Pixelbook if the group had the processor expertise.
Nuvia was founded by former Google and Apple employees. The three founders worked in particular on the chips that equip Apple’s iPhone.