Intel Kicks Off $100 Million China Fund for Smart Devices
Intel’s (INTC) investment arm has stocked with $100 million a special fund dedicated to underwriting innovations by Chinese companies in smart devices, including tablets, smartphones, PCs, convertibles and wearables, extending even to the amorphous Internet of Everything (IoE) and associated technologies.
Intel’s (INTC) investment arm has stocked with $100 million a special fund dedicated to underwriting innovations by Chinese companies in smart devices, including tablets, smartphones, PCs, convertibles and wearables, extending even to the amorphous Internet of Everything (IoE) and associated technologies.
In a keynote address at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in Shenzhen, China, on April 1, chief executive Brian Krzanich announced the chip maker’s China Smart Device Innovation Fund and the Smart Device Innovation Center. The idea, of course, is to spur development of Intel-based mobile devices in the underserved Chinese market.
Kzranich also confirmed a Q4 2014 OEM ship date for the 3G version of the SoFIA mobile system on a chip.
“To help drive global innovation, Intel will stay focused on delivering leadership products and technologies that not only allow our partners to rapidly innovate, but also deliver on the promise that ‘if it computes, it does it best with Intel’—from the edge device to the cloud, and everything in between,” said Kzranich.
The new center will provide a setting to link product ideas with commercial development, supplying local OEMs, ODMs and software engineers with access to Intel technology platforms and associated support, such as master reference designs for turnkey solutions, development tools, supply chain sourcing, quality management and customer support, Intel said.
Since 1998, Intel Capital has invested more than $670 million in 110 companies in China through two existing investment funds.
Kzranich said Intel’s goal is to ship some 40 million tablets this year, about 4 times what it did in 2013, and showcased a variety of tablet designs developed by Chinese OEMs and ODMs. “The China technology ecosystem will be instrumental in the transformation of computing,” he said.
Intel’s chief also demonstrated SoFIA, the chip maker’s new processor for “entry and value smartphones and tablets,” which he said will ship to OEMs in Q4 of this year. In addition, Kzranich chatted up Intel’s new Edison platform aimed at wearables development and announced the availability of the Intel Gateway Solutions for the Internet of Things based on Intel Quark and Atom processors and the Galileo-based development platform. And, he demonstrated Intel’s XMM 7260 LTE platform, making a live call using China Mobile’s TD-LTE network over Skype to Lenovo chief Yang Yuanqing.
