Intel will pay up to $1.5 billion for a 20 percent stake in a Chinese venture that will design and make Intel-branded chips for mobile phones and other electronics.<\/p>\n
The Chinese chipmakers Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics are controlled by Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd., a state-owned company funded by Tsinghua University in Beijing.<\/p>\n
Intel is also attempting to become a tougher competitor in the mobile chip business, which it has been unable to dominate the way it has desktop and laptop computers. The company is also pushing for a larger share of China’s growing mobile market, which is already the largest in the world.<\/p>\n
The push has taken on added urgency as the popularity of smartphones and tablets and led to sales declines for traditional personal computers, Intel’s main business for years.<\/p>\n
The companies said Friday that Spreadtrum and Intel will create a new family of chips for wireless phones. Those chips should be available in the second half of next year.<\/p>\n
The deal is expected to close in early 2015.<\/p>\n
This is Intel’s second corporate team-up targeting mobile chips in the past year. In May, Intel announced it would cooperate with another Chinese chipmaker, Rockchip, to use Intel chips in low-cost tablet computers running the Android operating system.<\/p>\n
Tsinghua has rapidly become an emerging power in the mobile chip business. It has acquired both Spreadtrum and RDA in the past year.<\/p>\n
Shares of Intel Corp., based in Santa Clara, California, slipped 13 cents to $34.01 in morning trading Friday. They had been trading near 52-week highs.<\/p>\n
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