We’ve caught wind of a rumor (via KitGuru) that could shake up the hardware industry quite a bit, should it come to fruition.

Take this with a grain of salt, however, software giant Microsoft has reportedly approached Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) months ago, to begin talks for buying out the semiconductor manufacturer. However, the source essentially ends there – it’s unclear whether these talks have progressed, or have stopped dead in the water.

A buyout by Microsoft would be huge for their home video game console presence, as it would mean Sony paying Microsoft for each AMD-made chip in their game consoles, or force their biggest competitor into finding an alternative for their gaming hardware.

Microsoft reportedly has a lot of money in the bank – $95.3 billion in cash, which means an AMD buyout (currently worth $1.81 billion) would be chump change for global company. Buyouts are sort of becoming a thing for Microsoft recently, as they also purchased the Minecraft developer Mojang, and complete ownership of the Minecraft IP, for $2.5 billion.

What do you guys think – would an AMD buyout via Microsoft make sense, financially? What could it mean for the state of the home game console market?