BEIJING: Intel Corp has invested a total of $67 million in eight Chinese technology startups, in an effort to give it an edge, it said, in emerging sectors such as next-generation smart devices, robotics and cloud services.
The investment comes less than a month after the United States-based multinational pumped more than $60 million into a Shanghai-based drone maker, Yuneec International Co Ltd.
Twelve Chinese companies have received capital injection from Intel this year, including a roughly $1 billion investment in a mobile chip set subsidiary under the State-owned Tsinghua Unigroup. The US company has now invested nearly $2 billion into more than 140 Chinese companies since 1998.
Ian Yang, Intel’s China president, said the country’s increasing demand for innovation, particularly in consumer electronics, had driven the investments.
“The growing spirit of grassroots innovation in the country is likely to present more investment opportunities,” Yang said on Thursday.
The investments have been made by Intel Capital, its investment and mergers and acquisitions wing.
Intel said in a statement the latest investments in China, now considered the world’s second-largest electronics market, will focus on smart devices, the Internet of Things, drones, visual reality and data analytics.
Officials did not specify the size of investment in each company, but most are at their first round of financing.
One of the most eye-catching recipients is Ninebot Inc, a Tianjin-based short-distance personal electric-vehicle maker which acquired industry leader Segway Inc in April.
Earlier this year, the company announced it had raised $80 million from Xiaomi Corp, Sequoia Capital and two other venture capital firms.
Gao Lufeng, its founder and chief executive, said there was a possibility of now using Intel technology in its future vehicle models, but did not reveal details.
Another recipient is Nuovo Film Inc, based in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, which makes nano touch film used in smartphones and tablets.
Hak Fei Poon, its chairman and chief technology officer, said a technology partnership with Intel is already underway.
“We will be able to tap into a bigger market by partnering with Intel.
“Nuovo Film will integrate its products into devices powered by Intel’s chips and we have cross-licensed each others’ patents so we will have a stronger intellectual property pool to support future development.”
Kitty Fok, research director at IDC China, said small electronics hardware makers in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, are playing a key role in popularizing Intel’s mobile chip sets.
Intel is relying on Chinese hardware makers to grow its presence in the mobile chip market, currently dominated by ARM-based vendors such as Qualcomm Inc.
Analysts consider Intel’s own x86 instruction set, the part of a computer’s architecture related to programming, is lagging in terms of market share because it has delayed the release of an energy-efficient mobile version.
Intel is not the only ambitious foreign investor in the Chinese tech industry. Dell Inc last week announced a $125 billion five-year investment plan in China, boosting its manufacturing and innovation capabilities.
