XPE General Topics, page-2615

Arthur - according to press reports the size of the investment has not been disclosed. Possibly around $10M based on this report:

Intel invests US$67M into a slew of Chinese companies

The newly-funded tech firms are from industries such as IoT, robotics, cloud and data business as well as hardware manufacturing

By Kevin McSpadden 17 Sep, 2015
SHARE Twitter Facebook Google+ Linkedin

Intel Corporation’s global investment and M&A arm Intel Capital announced today that it has invested US$67 million in eight Chinese tech companies.

These companies are 99cloud, AWcloud, Bluebank, Hampoo, Ninebot, Nuovo Film, Prafly Technologies and Telink Semiconductor.

Financial details of the investment were not disclosed.

“These companies now have the opportunity to leverage Intel Capital’s business development programmes, global network, technology expertise and brand capital to support their development and drive innovation across exciting next-generation technology categories,” Arvind Sohani, Executive Vice President of Intel and President of Intel Capital said, in an official statement.

Intel has been operating in China for 30 years and till date has four investment funds focussed on Asia’s largest economy. On August 26, the company invested US$60 million into Chinese drone company Yuneec. Last year, it bought a 20 per cent stake in state-owned chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup for US$1.5 billion.
Intel is deeply embedded in China and Ian Yang, Corporate VP at Intel and President of Intel China issued a statement expressing support for the tech-related policies established by the Communist Party.

“Our investments, new products and collaborations in China support the government’s national initiative to uplift its innovation economy and continue Intel’s long-term commitment to accelerating CTE development in China and driving global innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Yang.

The newly-funded tech firms work across a wide spectrum of the industry, including IoT, robotics, cloud and data business as well as hardware manufacturing. Below is a short description of each company:

99cloud: This Shanghai-based OpenStack company provides support for front-end, back-end and core framework optimisation.
AWcloud: AWcloud claims over 30,000 OpenStack instances running in the oil, power, coal, education, healthcare, research and new media industries. It is based in Beijing.
Bluebank: Also from Beijing, it is a digital manufacturing company with a specific focus on mobile devices in China. It develops both software and hardware.
Hampoo: A Shenzhen-based hi-tech-enterprise component maker, it claims to have 3,000 customers across 30 countries.
Ninebot: A transportation R&D facility that acquired Segway and received US$80 million Series A round from Xiaomi, Sequoia Capital, Shunwei Capital and Huashan Capital in April.
Nuovo Film: Headquartered in Suzhou it develops silver nanowire film that can be used for smartphones, tablets, iOT manufacturing and wearable devices. Silver nanowire is a highly conductive wiring with a diameter of 10 nanometres.
Prafly Technologies: It is a Shenzhen-based robotics company with a focus on robotic applications, network maintenance and security.
Telink Semiconductor: A semiconductor company with major offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Taipei, Taiwan and Tustin, California. Its products are usually applied to iOT hardware.