Nvidia won a bidding war that also included Intel and Microsoft with an all-cash offer about US$1 billion higher than Mellanox’s market value at close Friday. (Nvidia)

Talking point: The combined companies will power over half of the five hundred largest supercomputers in the world. Mellanox’s chips work on ethernet and other networking technologies, which are often needed to power 5G technology. The acquisition could allow Nvidia, which has mostly focused on computing, to capture more of the growing 5G chip-related market. The deal will need to be approved by U.S. regulators, but that process may be smoothed by the fact that the two companies previously collaborated on building the world’s fastest supercomputers, called Sierra and Summit, for the government.