Nvidia said on Thursday it would invest US$5 billion in Intel , throwing its heft behind the struggling U.S. chipmaker just weeks after the White House engineered an extraordinary deal for the U.S. government to take a massive stake in the company.

The stake instantly will make Nvidia one of Intel’s largest shareholders, giving it roughly four per cent or more of the company after new shares are issued to complete the deal.

Nvidia’s support represents a new opening for Intel after years of turnaround efforts at the famed U.S. manufacturer failed to pay off, and it triggered a 30 per cent jump in the troubled chipmaker’s shares in premarket action.

The company – once the chip industry’s flagbearer that claimed to put the “silicon” in Silicon Valley – appointed a new CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, in

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