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

The fund aims to "support early-stage startups and established companies building disruptive technologies for the foundry ecosystem," which means that it will work somewhat akin to a venture fund, so long as the projects are attuned to the overall IDM 2.0 plan. Intel will be investing in new, promising designs, while ensuring that promising projects have enough funds to scale. At the same time, this works as a way for Intel to snag customers from other competing foundries already: those that are already "soft-locked" into your incentive ecosystem are less likely to procure foundry services from the likes of TSMC or others.

Intel is an innovation powerhouse, but we know that not all good ideas originate from within our four walls. Innovation thrives in open and collaborative environments. This $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.

Randhir Thakur, President of Intel Foundry Services.

The fund will also strengthen Intel's IP, tooling and design capabilities for other ISAs other than the tried-and-true x86. This seems like a smart move, considering how ARM has already found its way into the world's fastest supercomputer - with more design wins certainly to follow - and with RISC-V's open architecture serving as a breeding pool for innovation. We'll see where Intel's road as a device manufacturer for other companies goes.