IntelThe company announced that its global venture capital arm, Intel Capital, will be spun off into an independent operating organization, which is expected to be officially implemented in the second half of 2025, when Intel Capital will operate under a new name. The current team will be migrated to the new company as a whole, and business operations will remain normal throughout the transition phase.
An executive of a large U.S. endowment fund bluntly said: “At present, all Chinese investments involving U.S. dollar funds may have ended, and the threshold for making new commitments in the private equity field is astonishingly high.”
David Zinsner, interim co-CEO and CFO of Intel, said: “Intel Capital becoming independent is a win-win situation, as it will have access to new sources of funding and expanded investment scope. At the same time, both companies are able to continue to benefit from a productive, long-term strategic partnership. The demerger supports our broader strategy to maximize the value of our assets while increasing focus and efficiency across the business. “
Anthony Lin, global vice president of Intel Capital, pointed out that independence from Intel Corporation will bring significant opportunities to the current investment portfolio. as an independent entityIntel Capital will have the autonomy and flexibility to raise external capital and expand its investment scope, and will create a more robust and geographically diverse ecosystem of resources, expertise and market access.
For Intel, the choice of this point in time is quite subtle.
On the one hand, Intel is in deep growth troubles.It once dominated the PC chip era, but is struggling in the AI chip era. According to IDC data, Intel’s share of the server chip market has fallen below 60%, a record low.
In the third quarter of 2024, Intel achieved revenue of US$13.28 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 6.2%, and net profit plummeted to -US$16.6 billion. Its client business, data center and AI business, which are its main sources of income, have also not seen significant improvement.
The financial media’s evaluation of Intel is quite sharp: loss of profits, loss of basic market share, and bleak prospects for the AI growth sector.
In fact, Intel has begun the process of breaking up the company one after another.Early 2024,Intel announces spinoff of Altera into independent company. Altera is the largest acquisition in Intel’s history. In 2015, Intel spent $16.7 billion to acquire Altera. Intel has high hopes for this FPGA developer, hoping to diversify its revenue sources and strengthen its business. position in the data center field. Now, Intel expects Altera to succeed as an independent entity, thereby obtaining additional funds during the IPO stage.
In the first half of 2025, Intel also plans to spin off RealSense.As Intel’s key layout in the field of computer vision and artificial intelligence, RealSense mainly provides depth cameras, facial recognition,robotsolutions and other technologies. Although it has always been a smaller segment of Intel’s business system, Intel is full of confidence in its future development.
Obviously, Intel’s split plan is not an impulse, but a prudent strategic decision made under the pressure of transformation.
On the other hand, starting from January 2, 2025, the United States’ new investment restrictions in China will officially come into effect. The new rule prohibits entities established in the United States and their foreign branches, as well as any individual (regardless of nationality) or entity in the United States, from investing in or requesting investment in China’s semiconductor and microelectronics, quantum information, and artificial intelligence fields. Make a declaration.
Since Intel Capital became involved in China investment projects in 1998, it has included a large number of Chinese technology companies in its investment landscape. According to the Financial Times, Intel Capital holds equity interests in 43 Chinese technology startups, including 16 Chinese AI companies and 15 Chinese semiconductor companies.
But the actual situation may be more than that,According to relevant statistics, Intel Capital has invested in more than 180 Chinese technology companies in China, with an investment amount of more than 2.5 billion US dollars. It is one of the American investors with the largest investment in China’s technology field.
Its investment portfolio covers Shunxin Semiconductor, Yijing Technology (solid-state lidar), Lanzhi Electronics, Space Technology (smart sensor chip), Weizhao Semiconductor, Provisions (neuromorphic vision), Zhongke Soundlong (chip) R&D), Yuntian Changxiang (computing infrastructure), Banxin Technology (semiconductor), Jizhijia (intelligent robot), Qixin Micro Semiconductor, AG Micro Semiconductor, China Technology Semiconductor,VeriSiliconand many other companies.
It is not difficult to find that these investment companies include equity interests in Chinese startups in the AI and semiconductor fields that the US government focuses on.
In the past two years, Intel Capital’s investment in China has shrunk significantly. In 2023, Intel only made 3 investments (Huimei Technology, Weihe Technology, Kunyou Optoelectronics); in 2024, the number of investments did not increase (investment in Luxshare Technology, investment in Sanshiji, Ailing Network).
As new regulations on investment restrictions in China come into effect, Intel Capital will most likely be forced to divest from some companies.Under such circumstances, divesting Intel Capital may be a helpless move.
Faced with increasingly tense geopolitical tensions, many investors have chosen to reduce or suspend new investments in China. Silicon Valley’s Sequoia Capital and GGV Capital, for example, parted ways with their Chinese entities in 2024.
The U.S. investment review final rules set restrictions on the flow of capital, technology, and talent. At the financial level, all Chinese investments related to U.S. dollar funds have almost come to an end, and the threshold for U.S. long-term funds to enter the Chinese market is unattainable.
Fortunately, the investment of RMB funds in hard technology fields has begun to take shape, and state-owned assets are gradually becoming mature in terms of investment fault tolerance, investment track selection, and investment process control.
From the perspective of technology and talent, in the context of the game between China and the United States, the previously advocated concepts of investing in scientists, promoting domestic substitution, and investing in disruptive technologies have increasingly highlighted their important value.
It’s not all bad news.
Zhang Ying of Matrix Partners believes: “There will be no complete decoupling of the industrial chain in the future, because that will destroy the entire production network, and everyone will lose more than they gain. There is a high probability that the industrial chain will become longer and longer, requiring a new global approach. layout.
The reason is very simple. Whoever you choose to trade with will not be made politically. Your trading partner will be able to produce the products you want. What ultimately has a decisive impact on the transfer of the industrial chain is not political factors, but whether the product can be sold and whether consumers will pay for it. Therefore, the global industrial chain will become longer and longer, rather than completely decoupled. ” (This article was first published on Titanium Media APP, author｜Guo Hongyan, editor｜Tao Tianyu)
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