Posted on: Tuesday, October 22, 2002

Intel to invest $150M in wireless companies

By Cesca Antonelli
Bloomberg News Service

WASHINGTON — Intel Corp. will invest $150 million in companies that develop gear to connect wireless devices to the Internet, as the world's biggest chipmaker tries to jump-start demand by helping to make such hookups more popular.

Intel will support companies working with a standard dubbed 802.11, or Wi-Fi, to speed up the adoption of high-speed Web access for wireless gadgets such as cell phones and electronic organizers in places such as airports, cafes and factories.

The company's venture capital arm in 1999 set $500 million aside for communications investments and has decided to earmark $150 million of it for wireless networking, Vice President Mark Christensen said. Intel plans to unveil a laptop chip with a built-in 802.11 connection next year, the first mobile chip it has designed from scratch, and has said many varieties of future semiconductors will have networking functions.

"This is probably the ripest area for investment and innovation right now," Christensen said on a conference call with reporters. The investments will come over the next two or two and a half years, he said.

Intel Capital has already invested $25 million in more than 10 wireless-networking companies. The chipmaker invested more than $350 million in various technology companies last year.

Les Vadasz, who runs Intel Capital, will discuss the plans at the Wireless Airport Association Conference and Exposition today in Washington.