Nvidia jumps after announcing a partnership with Microsoft to give Minecraft a massive graphics overhaul

Nvidia/Microsoft

• Nvidia shares jumped as much as 6% Monday after Microsoft announced it would bring the chipmaker's "ray tracing" graphics technology to "Minecraft," one of the world's most popular video games.
• The graphics upgrade will represent one of the biggest updates to "Minecraft," bringing more realistic lighting, shadows and reflections to the sandbox-style game.
• The partnership is unlikely to pass over to Microsoft's next-generation console though, as the Xbox One successor will run on AMD hardware.
• Watch Nvidia trade live here.

Nvidia jumped as much as 6% Monday after Microsoft announced the chipmaker would bring support for "ray tracing" technology to "Minecraft."

Microsoft purchased "Minecraft" studio Mojang in 2014, and the game remains among the most popular in the world, with more than 91 million monthly users as of October.

The addition of ray tracing serves as one of game's biggest updates since its release in May 2009. Ray tracing is designed to make light in video games act more naturally, improving shadows, reflections and sources of light.

Nvidia competitors AMD and Intel rose about 2% and 1.5%, respectively. US stocks opened higher Monday, recovering from lows brought by trade war tension and growing fears of global recession.

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Part of "Minecraft's" popularity comes from its low bar-of-entry relative to other games. While some games require expensive hardware, "Minecraft" can be played on mobile devices with little change in performance. Ray tracing will first arrive on PCs equipped with Nvidia's RTX graphics cards.

While Microsoft's Xbox One successor - codenamed "Project Scarlett" - is expected to support "Minecraft," it's unlikely to have Nvidia's ray tracing technology. The next-generation console runs on AMD hardware, and will likely use the Nvidia rival's equivalent to RTX ray tracing.

Nvidia traded at $168.97 per share as of 12:15 p.m. ET Monday, up nearly 27% year-to-date.

Nvidia has 26 "buy" ratings, 10 "hold" ratings, and three "sell" ratings from analysts, with a consensus price target of $178, according to Bloomberg data.

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