Graphics Chip Kingpins Must Reshape Themselves.

Byline: James DeTar, Investor's Daily

Nvidia Corp. and ATI Technologies Inc. are kings of the graphics chip hill, among the last warriors left standing in a bitter market war. They face a challenge, however: Their hill is shrinking. "The whole industry is in consolidation," said Kwok Yuen Ho, co-founder and chief executive of ATI Technologies Inc., the No. 1 graphics chipmaker. The reason? Big chipmakers such as Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are packing more and more graphics on microprocessors, the main chip that powers PCs. That reduces the need for separate graphics chips. "The days of starting a graphics chip companyfrom scratch and taking over the world four years later are gone," said Mike Feibus, analyst at Mercury Research. According to Scottsdale, …