Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) may still be the world’s largest chipmaker, but in many ways it is still playing catch-up with consumers’ shift away from PCs to mobile devices. To that end, it now has announced that its venture capital arm will establish a $100 million fund aimed at accelerating the creation of new devices that use Intel chips.
Intel Capital’s new China Smart Device Innovation Fund follows in the footsteps to two previous funds that the company says funneled more than $670 million into 110 companies in China since 1998. The plans also call for the establishment of an innovation center in Shenzhen in southern China, which is home to factories that produce many of the world’s mobile devices and computers.
The objective of the fund, and new products coming out of Intel, is that the Santa Clara-based company will become a major technology supplier for wearable devices and for the so-called Internet of Things. This is in addition to its increasing focus on smartphones and tablets, where rival Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM) has made great strides.
Intel has had to shift as well, to smaller, less-expensive chips than it historically has produced. The company introduced its ultra-small Quark processor line last fall, and it said that it hopes to have a new wireless chip certified in China for TD-LTE in the second half of 2014.
Intel shares were inactive in premarket trading Wednesday. They closed at $25.99 Tuesday, in a 52-week range of $20.75 to $27.12.
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