Figure, an AI Robotics company building general purpose humanoid robots, today announced a $9 million equity investment made by Intel Capital. This funding from Intel Capital helps strengthen Figure's balance sheet and will accelerate the development of Figure 01 (the company's autonomous humanoid robot), build out Figure's AI data pipeline for autonomous operations, and drive the Company towards commercialization. This announcement follows the Company's most recent achievement of the Figure 01 robot taking its first steps.

Intel Capital is a notable addition to Figure's Series A funding round and is joining other top-tier investors such as Parkway Venture Capital, Brett Adcock, Aliya Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Tamarack Global, FJ labs, and former KUKA Robotics CEO Till Reuter.

Eliyan Corporation, credited for the invention of the semiconductor industry's highest-performance and most efficient chiplet interconnect, today announced two major milestones in the commercialization of its technology for multi-die chiplet integration: the close of its Series A $40M funding round, and the successful tapeout of its technology on an industry standard 5-nanometer (nm) process.

Eliyan's NuLink PHY and NuGear technologies address the critical need for a commercially viable approach to enabling high performance and cost-effectiveness in the connection of homogeneous and heterogenous architectures on a standard, organic chip substrate. It has proven to achieve similar bandwidth, power efficiency, and latency as die-to-die implementations using advanced packaging technologies, but without the other drawbacks of specialized approaches.

Ayar Labs, the leader in chip-to-chip optical connectivity, today announced that the company has secured $130 million in additional financing led by Boardman Bay Capital Management to drive the commercialization of its breakthrough optical I/O solution. Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and NVIDIA entered this investment round, joining existing strategic investors Applied Ventures LLC, GlobalFoundries, Intel Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures. Other new strategic and financial investors participating in the round include Agave SPV, Atreides Capital, Berkeley Frontier Fund, IAG Capital Partners, Infinitum Capital, Nautilus Venture Partners, and Tyche Partners. They join existing investors such as BlueSky Capital, Founders Fund, Playground Global, and TechU Venture Partners.

"As a successful technology-focused crossover fund operating for over a decade, Ayar Labs represents our largest private investment to date," said Will Graves, Chief Investment Officer at Boardman Bay Capital Management. "We believe that silicon photonics-based optical interconnects in the data center and telecommunications markets represent a massive new opportunity and that Ayar Labs is the leader in this emerging space with proven technology, a fantastic team, and the right ecosystem partners and strategy."

As part of its IDM 2.0 (Integrated Device Manufacturer) plan, Intel has announced it has setup a $1 Billion fund to support early-stage startups and established companies building disruptive technologies for the foundry ecosystem. A collaboration between Intel Capital and Intel Foundry Services (IFS), the move aims to capitalize on what Intel sees as the future of the industry: with a focus on an Open Chiplet platform and Open Interconnect Standard, Intel is looking to enable partners to deploy packaging technologies that bring together multiple ISAs (Instruction Set Architectures) within the same chip. The idea is simple: customers will be looking to mix and match several IPs on their semiconductor designs, taking advantage of different strengths (particularly in the power/performance/area equation) from each.

Foundry customers are rapidly embracing a modular design approach to differentiate their products and accelerate time to market. Intel Foundry Services is well-positioned to lead this major industry inflection. With our new investment fund and open chiplet platform, we can help drive the ecosystem to develop disruptive technologies across the full spectrum of chip architectures.

Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO

Intel Corp. and Lightbits Labs today announced an agreement to propel development of disaggregated storage solutions to solve the challenges of today's data center operators who are craving improved total-cost-of-ownership (TCO) due to stranded disk capacity and performance. This strategic partnership includes technical co-engineering, go-to-market collaboration and an Intel Capital investment in Lightbits Labs. Lightbits' LightOS product delivers high-performance shared storage across servers while providing high availability and read-and-write management designed to maximize the value of flash-based storage. LightOS, while being fully optimized for Intel hardware, provides customers with vastly improved storage efficiency and reduces underutilization while maintaining compatibility with existing infrastructure without compromising performance and simplicity.

Lightbits Labs will enhance its composable disaggregated software-defined storage solution, LightOS, for Intel technologies, creating an optimized software and hardware solution. The system will utilize Intel Optane persistent memory and Intel 3D NAND SSDs based on Intel QLC Technology, Intel Xeon Scalable processors with unique built-in artificial intelligence (AI) acceleration capabilities and Intel Ethernet 800 Series Network Adapters with Application Device Queues (ADQ) technology. Intel's leadership FPGAs for next-generation performance, flexibility and programmability will complement the solution.

SiFive, Inc., the leading provider of commercial RISC-V processor IP and silicon solutions, today announced it raised $61 million in a Series E round led by SK hynix, joined by new investor Prosperity7 Ventures, with additional funding from existing investors, Sutter Hill Ventures, Western Digital Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Intel Capital, Osage University Partners, and Spark Capital.

"Global demand for storage and memory in the data center is increasing as AI-powered business intelligence and data processing growth continues", said Youjong Kang, VP of Growth Strategy, SK hynix. "SiFive is well-positioned to grow with opportunities created from data center, enterprise, storage and networking requirements for workload-focused processor IP."

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment organization, announced today new investments totaling $132 million in 11 technology startups. These companies bring to market breakthrough innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous computing and chip design. The companies joining Intel Capital's portfolio are Anodot, Astera Labs, Axonne, Hypersonix, KFBIO, Lilt, MemVerge, ProPlus Electronics, Retrace, Spectrum Materials and Xsight Labs.

"Intel Capital identifies and invests in disruptive startups that are working to improve the way we work and live. Each of our recent investments is pushing the boundaries in areas such as AI, data analytics, autonomous systems and semiconductor innovation. Intel Capital is excited to work with these companies as we jointly navigate the current world challenges and as we together drive sustainable, long-term growth," said Wendell Brooks, Intel senior vice president and president of Intel Capital.

Intel Corporation today announced it has acquired Moovit, a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) solutions company, for approximately $900 million ($840 million net of Intel Capital equity gain). Moovit is known for its urban mobility application that offers travelers around the world the best multimodal trip planning by combining public transportation, bicycle and scooter services, ride-hailing, and car-sharing. The addition of Moovit brings Intel's Mobileye closer to achieving its plan to become a complete mobility provider, including robotaxi services, which is forecast to be an estimated $160 billion opportunity by 2030.

"Intel's purpose is to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on Earth, and our Mobileye team delivers on that purpose every day," said Bob Swan, Intel CEO. "Mobileye's ADAS technology is already improving the safety of millions of cars on the road, and Moovit accelerates their ability to truly revolutionize transportation - reducing congestion and saving lives - as a full-stack mobility provider."

Intel Corporation today announced that it has acquired Habana Labs, an Israel-based developer of programmable deep learning accelerators for the data center for approximately $2 billion. The combination strengthens Intel's artificial intelligence (AI) portfolio and accelerates its efforts in the nascent, fast-growing AI silicon market, which Intel expects to be greater than $25 billion by 2024 (1).

"This acquisition advances our AI strategy, which is to provide customers with solutions to fit every performance need - from the intelligent edge to the data center," said Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of the Data Platforms Group at Intel. "More specifically, Habana turbo-charges our AI offerings for the data center with a high-performance training processor family and a standards-based programming environment to address evolving AI workloads."

Intel's AI strategy is grounded in the belief that harnessing the power of AI to improve business outcomes requires a broad mix of technology - hardware and software - and full ecosystem support. Today, Intel AI solutions are helping customers turn data into business value and driving meaningful revenue for the company. In 2019, Intel expects to generate over $3.5 billion in AI-driven revenue, up more than 20 percent year-over-year. Together, Intel and Habana can accelerate the delivery of best-in-class AI products for the data center, addressing customers' evolving needs.

The following is an opinion editorial provided by Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel Corporation. At Intel, we have an optimistic and pragmatic view of artificial intelligence's (AI) impact on society, jobs and daily life that will mimic other profound transformations - from the industrial to the PC revolutions. Our belief is that AI will bring significant new opportunities to transform business - from retail to healthcare to manufacturing - and have an immensely positive impact on society.

AI will make the impossible possible: advancing research on cancer, Parkinson's disease and brain disorders; helping to find missing children; and furthering scientific efforts in climate change, space exploration and oceanic research. To drive AI innovation, Intel is making strategic investments spanning technology, R&D and partnerships with business, government, academia and community groups. We are deeply committed to unlocking the promise of AI: conducting research on neuromorphic computing, exploring new architectures and learning paradigms. We have also invested in startups like Mighty AI, Data Robot and Lumiata through our Intel Capital portfolio and have invested more than $1 billion in companies that are helping to advance artificial intelligence.

Delivering his keynote address at the LA Auto Show's AutoMobility conference, Brian Krzanich, Intel Corporation chief executive officer, today announced that Intel Capital is targeting more than $250 million of additional new investments over the next two years to make fully autonomous driving a reality. This is the first time Intel is keynoting at an automotive conference, signifying how critical the automotive market has become for the company.

These investments will drive the development of technologies that push the boundaries on next-generation connectivity, communication, context awareness, deep learning, security, safety and more. Drilling down into the areas that will be fueled by the fresh investments, Krzanich highlighted technologies that will drive global Internet of Things (IoT) innovation in transportation; areas where technology can directly mitigate risks while improving safety, mobility, and efficiency at a reduced cost; and companies that harness the value of the data to improve reliability of automated driving systems.

Today Intel Corporation's CEO, Brian Krzanich, announced a series of leadership and organizational changes in a message to employees. Intel President Renée James informed the board that she will be stepping down as President of Intel to pursue an external CEO role. She has agreed to stay at Intel until January in order to transition the Executive Office. In connection with today's news, James today distributed an employee message about her plans.

In addition, other leadership and organizational changes that are being made to streamline operations and better position Intel for growth include: Arvind Sodhani, President of Intel Capital, will retire in January after a distinguished 35-year career with the company. President of Mergers and Acquisitions Wendell Brooks will take an expanded role to also become President of Intel Capital. Merging these teams under one leader will allow clear focus across all investment opportunities for Intel.

On July 1, the Intel Security organization - formerly the independent McAfee division - was formally integrated into Intel operations under the leadership of General Manager Chris Young. This integration will deliver better technologies for our customers and more effective operations that enable Intel Security to advance the state of security across the industry.

As the computing industry landscape undergoes rapid transformation, Intel Corporation CEO Brian Krzanich today outlined the company's plans to build upon its nearly 30-year history in China, and collaborate with the growing technology ecosystem, particularly in Shenzhen, to accelerate new innovation and reshape the computing industry.

During his keynote, Krzanich discussed how Intel and the Shenzhen technology ecosystem can re-ignite growth - both locally and globally - and deliver differentiated computing products and experiences, spanning multiple market segments, operating systems and price points. Underscoring this point, he announced the establishment of an Intel Smart Device Innovation Center in Shenzhen and a US$100 million Intel Capital China Smart Device Innovation Fund.

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment and M&A organization, is announcing investments in 16 new technology companies totaling $65 million. Spanning nine countries, the investments will help drive innovations in the cloud, datacenter, mobile technologies and consumer-related services. Announced at the 14th annual Intel Capital Global Summit held in San Diego, the new investments are part of Intel Capital's mission of cultivating global innovation by providing entrepreneurs with the resources necessary to scale from startup to global corporation level.

Designed to create growth opportunities for Intel Capital portfolio companies through structured networking, the Intel Capital Global Summit includes a full agenda of keynote presentations, expert panels and more than 2,000 targeted meetings between portfolio company CEOs and key business executives. Portfolio companies attending past Global Summits have gone on to sign business deals with leading corporations across a wide range of industries.

Validity Sensors, Inc., the leader in Natural ID authentication, today announced that Intel Capital has completed a strategic investment as part of its Series E Financing. Intel's investment combined with additional strategic investments from World Fair and DDS brings the total Series E capital commitments to more than $22 million. This follows an initial closing on October 4, 2012, led by TeleSoft Partners that included full participation from Qualcomm Ventures, VentureTech Alliance (the venture capital arm of TSMC), Panorama Capital and Crosslink Capital.

"Validity's technology addresses an important need to make computing devices and the transactions completed on them more secure while actually increasing ease of use for the end user," said Dave Flanagan, Managing Director, Intel Capital. "This investment reflects our commitment to collaborate with the fingerprint sensor market leader to create differentiated products for mobile and computing platforms."

Intel Capital portfolio company Crossing Automation announced today that it is being acquired by Brooks Automation (NASDAQ: BRKS) for $63 million. Intel Capital invested in Crossing in 2005 and provided financial support and strategic and operational planning guidance to the company, which manufactures fab and tool automation equipment for the semiconductor market, enabling Crossing to achieve significant revenue and operating income growth.

The deal follows on the heels of FormFactor's (NASDAQ: FORM) $117 million acquisition of Intel Capital portfolio company MicroProbe, which provides advanced wafer test solutions to global semiconductor manufacturers. These successful exits signal a revival of opportunities in the semiconductor investment sector where Intel Capital is well positioned to add value to these companies.

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment and M&A organization, kicked off its annual Intel Capital Global Summit by announcing investments in 10 innovative technology companies. Intended to help these companies grow to the next level, the investments reinforce the Global Summit's 2-day agenda focused on company building. Totaling approximately $40 million, they cover a range of technologies from collaborating in the cloud and delivering enhanced digital entertainment to simplifying mobile payments and enabling new forms of device interaction.

The investments include secure content sharing platform Box; Bollywood and South-Asian content distributor Hungama.com; integrated circuit design house FocalTech; social radio platform Jelli; social game developer LIFO Interactive; mobile proximity platform NewAer; e-payment platform PagPop; cloud services provider Tier 3; 3-D game developer Transmension; and mobile advertising provider UUCun. Financial details of each investment were not disclosed.

Tobii Technology, the global leader in eye tracking and gaze interaction, announced today that it has closed a USD $21M funding round. New investor Intel Capital joins existing investors Amadeus Capital, Investor Growth Capital and Northzone Ventures. The funding will be used to continue R&D investments in core technology and to take eye tracking and gaze interaction to mainstream computers and other mass-market applications.

The new funding from Intel Capital will help Tobii to further accelerate the technological evolution and to take the leap into mass-market applications, such as mainstream computers, cars, games and other consumer and professional products. More specifically it will help Tobii to do necessary R&D investments, grow their R&D organization and build new strategic competences.

Intel Capital today announced a $100 million investment fund to help accelerate innovation and the adoption of new technology and services in the automotive industry. Intel Capital is the first global technology investment organization headquartered in Silicon Valley to announce a dedicated focus on automotive technology innovation.

The Intel Capital Connected Car Fund will be invested globally over the next 4 to 5 years in hardware, software and services companies developing technologies to promote new, compelling in-vehicle applications and enable the seamless connection between vehicles and any connected device, including mobile devices and sensors.

New Venture Partners, the global venture capital firm dedicated to corporate technology spin-outs, today announced that its portfolio company, Silicon Hive, a spin-out from Philips Electronics (Philips), has been acquired by Intel Corporation (Intel). "New Venture Partners and Intel Capital never shied away from the heavy lifting involved in making Silicon Hive the success it is today".

Silicon Hive was incubated by Philips to commercialize parallel processing technology for semiconductor Systems-on-Chip (SoC). In 2007, Philips decided to spin out Silicon Hive as an independent, venture-backed company. New Venture Partners structured the transaction, transitioning the Silicon Hive business -- team, relationships, products, technology and related intellectual property -- out of Philips and into a start-up company. New Venture Partners led the Series A investment in Silicon Hive with initial participation from TVM Capital.

Intel Corporation, through its standalone business entity Intel Mobile Communications, today announced that it has acquired most of the assets of SySDSoft, a privately held software company based in Cairo and hired approximately 100 of the company's electrical engineers and computer scientists. SySDSoft designs state-of-the-art IP solutions in the software stack and physical layer domain, and RF/analog circuits embedded in mobile platforms.

"The acquisition of engineering and design talent from an Egypt-based company in the field of cutting-edge wireless and communication technology is the first of its kind for Intel in the Middle East," said Arvind Sodhani, president, Intel Capital and executive vice president, Intel. "The acquisition shows Intel's continued long-term strategic commitment to the region and its appreciation of its young, growing talent pool."

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment organization, reaffirmed its dedication to foster worldwide innovation with the announcement of 18 new investments. The new deals total approximately $77 million and were announced today at the 11th annual Intel Capital CEO Summit, Intel Capital's gathering of portfolio company CEOs, corporate technology decision makers from Global 1000 companies and thought leaders from around the world. The new Intel Capital investments span 11 countries including Brazil, China, Germany, India, Israel, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine and the United States.

The new investments align with Intel's strategic focus on fostering innovation in core PC and server market segments including cloud computing, mobility solutions and access to broadband wireless in geographies around the world. Additionally, these investments will help enable advancements in adjacent computing areas including smart TV, tablets and smartphones.

Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment organization, today demonstrated its ongoing support for technological innovation with the announcement of three U.S.-based investments totaling approximately $15 million. The deals include eldercare website Caring.com, real estate investment ratings provider SmartZip Analytics and infrastructure services provider Virtustream.

In addition to these three investments, Intel Capital also highlighted several recently announced investments. These include educational gaming company Tabula Digita, Carrier Ethernet solutions provider Overture Networks and advertising technology company BlackArrow.