Intel launches $1B fund to build its foundry ecosystem

With the fund, Intel will prioritise investments in capabilities that accelerate foundry customers’ time to market – spanning intellectual property, software tools, innovative chip architectures and advanced packaging technologies.

At the same time Intel also announces partnerships with several companies – such as Ansys, eMemory Technology and Synopsys – aligned with this fund and focused on key strategic industry inflections.

“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 in a press release.

“Innovation thrives in open and collaborative environments. This USD 1 billion fund in partnership with Intel Capital – a recognized leader in venture capital investing – will marshal the full resources of Intel to drive innovation in the foundry ecosystem,” adds said Randhir Thakur, president of Intel Foundry Services.

About the Open RISC-V Ecosystem – a key part of the IFS strategy is to offer a broad range of IP optimised for Intel process technologies. Intel claims that IFS is the only foundry to offer IP optimised for all three of the industry’s leading ISAs: x86, Arm and RISC-V.

Intel is joining forces with partners in the RISC-V ecosystem, including Andes Technology, Esperanto Technologies, SiFive and Ventana Micro Systems. IFS plans to offer a range of validated RISC-V IP cores, performance-optimised for different market segments.