Intel has reiterated its commitment to China’s tech ecosystem, revealing they have injected $67 million USD into eight startups across China, including Ninebot, the company that acquired Segway earlier this year.
The company announced the full list of startups in a statement released on Thursday. Other focus areas for the investment include OpenStack solutions, smart device hardware and IoT hardware.
Intel has made a series of investments in Chinese startups since opening China-side operations. This August they announced a $60 million USD investment in Chinese aviation and drone company Yuneec, following investments in other global drone makers. In January 2014 they pumped an undisclosed sum into Chinese crowdfunding site Demoday, which focusses on hardware development. Back in 2013 they also partnered with Baidu to launch free app testing centers in China with the intention of speeding up the development process for startups.
The announcement comes ahead of Xi Jinping’s first state visit to the U.S., as American tech companies reiterate their commitment to China. Last week PC hardware giant Dell showed support for its China-side operations by reiterating its commitment to spend $125 billion USD in China R&D over the next five years.
At the same time, a handful of U.S. tech leaders have reportedly agreed to attend a conference organized by Beijing in Seattle on the 23rd of September. Attendees will include Apple CEO Tim Cook as well as representatives from Google, Uber and Facebook. All of whom have a vested interest in maintaining a positive relationship with the Chinese government.
The Chinese market has posed a serious challenge to Intel, with local chip makers bursting into popularity over the span of five years. According to Bloomberg, two of China’s largest tablet chip manufacturers Rocket Electronics and Allwinner Technology have snared close to a third of the chip market in the last half decade.