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Intel to launch $100M China fund for smart devices

The company is launching a $100 million fund to make sure its chips get into wearables, Internet devices, phones, and hybrids.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
2 min read

intel-quark-soc.jpg
Intel Quark chip for wearables. Intel is announcing new products based on Quark and other chips.

Intel has launched a $100 million fund in China to accelerate innovation of smart devices, as it seeks to spur development of newfangled products using its chips.

Speaking at the Intel Developer Forum in Shenzhen on Wednesday, CEO Brian Krzanich announced the establishment of an Intel Smart Device Innovation Center there and a $100 million Intel Capital China Smart Device Innovation Fund.

The goal is to team up with local companies to foster innovation, with the emphasis, of course, on Intel silicon technology.

The fund hopes to get Chinese companies to develop Intel-based 2-in-1 hybrids (tablet-laptop), tablets, smartphones, wearables, and the Internet of Things.

In conjunction with this, the center "will expand Intel's work beyond tablets and provide local manufacturers and software developers with access to...master reference designs for turnkey solutions, development tools, supply chain sourcing, quality management and customer support -- acting as a bridge between product conception and commercial deployment," Intel said in a statement.

Since 1998, Intel Capital has invested more than $670 million in 110 companies in China.

"The China technology ecosystem will be instrumental in the transformation of computing," Krzanich said in a statement.

He is also discussing new products, including Intel Edison, a platform that makes it easier for entrepreneurs to get started with Intel-based wearables. He also announced the availability of the Intel Gateway Solutions for the Internet of Things based on Intel Quark and Atom processors.

Krzanich also demonstrated for the first time SoFIA, a chip for low-cost phones that will be built at a factory outside the company.