Intel has invested a total of $31 million in six companies through the company"s venture capital arm: Intel Capital. In the first quarter of this year, Intel Capital invested $154 million in 43 deals worldwide, including 20 new companies. Three-fourths of these investments are in companies outside the United States.
The new investments include China-based 51.com, the largest social networking site in the country with 60 million registered users and, according to Intel, is growing by about 5 million accounts per month. Also receiving money is Jajah, a U.S. company building Internet telephony technology. Jajah and Intel also entered into a business and marketing deal that has Intel providing Jajah with access to Intel product dealers, OEM customers, and developers. Other investments include two firms in Israel: Aternity is a supplier of application management software for the enterprise and Cedo Technologies builds personal working environment software for consumer portable storage devices. As part of the deal, Aternity has agreed to support Intel"s vPro technology for remotely managing desktops and notebooks. The last two investments are Phoenix Microelectronics, a Chinese integrated circuit design house that builds products for equipment sold to wireless operators; and Tutor.com, a U.S. company that provides on-demand tutoring and homework services.