Intel Announces $3.5B VC Partnership

Intel Corp., already the largest chipmaker worldwide, is aiming to also be the largest supporter of domestic startups.

The U.S. tech giant last month announced that is working with two dozen venture firms to organize $3.5 billion in investment in promising technology, $200 million of which will come from Intel Capital, the company’s venture arm, Intel President Paul Otellini said.

“Strong, enduring economies grow out of a culture of investment and a commitment to innovation,” Otellini said in a speech at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution think tank. “We simply must have a clear, consistent strategy to promote innovation, investment and startup companies. There are things business can do, and ought to do, independent of what government achieves.”

The investments will be targeted at cleantech, information technology and biotech over the next two years.

Otellini said that the effort, called the Invest in America Alliance, was launched in response to how the United States is losing its competitive edge as other countries invest more heavily in technology education and innovation.

Strong, enduring economies grow out of a culture of investment and a commitment to innovation. We simply must have a clear, consistent strategy to promote innovation, investment and startup companies.

Paul Otellini

China, India, Taiwan, Finland, Korea and the Netherlands, have become “far more potent competitors in the next phase of the global economy,” he said in his speech at the Brookings Institution.

The venture firms joining with Intel include Advanced Technology Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures, Bridgescale Partners, Canaan Partners, DCM, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Flywheel Ventures, Good Energies, Institutional Venture Partners, Investcorp Technology Partners, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Menlo Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, North Bridge Venture Partners, QuestMark Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Storm Ventures, Telesoft Partners, Updata Partners, U.S. Venture Partners, Venrock and Walden International.

Intel Capital is already one of the single largest venture investors of the past decade, having invested in 463 U.S.-based companies over 722 financing rounds, according to data from Thomson Reuters (publisher of VCJ). Representatives from some of the two dozen firms that will be working with Intel said that the announcement in no way reflected a planned change in investment strategy or investment pace. They also are under no obligation to increase their co-investment activity with Intel Capital.

Additionally, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker announced plans for it and other companies to double their hiring of college graduates, creating more than 10,500 jobs. Otellini estimated the annual paychecks would total more than $1 billion.

The companies involved in the hiring of new college graduates include Accenture, Adobe Systems Inc., Autodesk Inc., Broadcom Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Dell Inc., eBay Inc., EMC Corp., General Electric Co., Google Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Liberty Mutual Group, Marvell Semiconductor, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. —Alastair Goldfisher and Dan Primack