AMD 'bid against' NVIDIA 'hard' to win Nintendo Switch 2 contract

AMD reportedly bid hard against NVIDIA to win the custom SoC contract for Nintendo's next-gen Switch 2 gaming handheld.

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Nintendo Switch 2 rumors (source: Moore's Law is Dead)

The news is coming from insider sources of NVIDIA in a new video from Moore's Law is Dead, where one of the sources said: "To be honest, the Switch 2 isn't really on my radar anymore -- right now I am focused on finishing up validation for Blackwell. Switch 2 silicon has been done since late 2022. As far as I am aware, that Digital Foundry article looking at the T239 processor leaked from when we were hacked is an almost entirely correct summary of what's true about the silicon in the Switch 2."

This source continued: "We presented several options to Nintendo, including one that utilized Lovelace, and they basically selected a cost-optimized version of Orin. It has some efficiency tweaks from Lovelace, and a few other goodies added as well. Oh, and AMD bid against us HARD for the Switch 2 btw, but ended up losing the bid."

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Another told MLID: "I'm not that close to the project, but I can say that Samsung 8nm is a perfect match for Nintendo. It's the lowest cost/transistor node on the market, and it's not expected to be as competitive for capacity as more modern nodes over the next few years. Also, remember that with 128-bit LPDDR5, Nintendo could realistically choose 8GB, 12GB, or 16GB capacities for the SoC we designed for them."

We should expect more concrete news on Nintendo's next-gen Switch 2 handheld later this year, but with teased Xbox Series S levels of raw performance, improved ray tracing, and console-optimized DLSS technology, it sounds mighty exciting.

AMD fighting for the contract when it's already building semi-custom chips for both of Microsoft's Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S consoles, as well as Sony's PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Slim consoles -- oh, and winning the contract already to build Sony's next-generation PlayStation 6 console -- AMD is thirsty for those semi-custom contracts.

But bidding "hard" against NVIDIA shows they're continuing to be serious in the custom chip-making business, but seem to have lost out again to Nintendo for the next-gen Switch console.