Much to the surprise of no one. As you suggested, it was likely a play to hurt their competitors. Part of the reason that it wouldn't go through is that nobody trusts Nvidia, and rightly so. I don't usually care about most tech mergers, they often collapse under their own weight, but I never saw anything good coming from this.
(Also, credit for capitalizing the "V", like we did in old-timey days, during the before times.)