Intel dollars recharge batteries

TOKYO: Intel Capital Japan, the Japanese investment arm of the world's largest chip maker, Intel Corp, said that it had invested in unlisted Japanese battery technology company Pionics Co Ltd.

The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Pionics, which is developing lithium batteries, and Intel also signed a technical collaboration agreement, Intel said in a statement.

Pionics will use the funds from Intel to accelerate the development of new battery technologies for mobile devices, such as notebook computers and personal digital assistants, Intel said.

"Investing in companies, such as Pionics, that develop new battery technologies to improve the battery life of mobile devices is an important part of Intel Capital's investment strategy," Shiong Tan, managing director of Intel Capital Japan, said in the statement.

Intel has provided more than $200 million to about 480 companies worldwide.

Intel's investments are typically made to enable companies to develop technologies that support Intel products or to speed up the adoption of certain technologies, like wireless computing, which Intel is promoting widely with its Centrino technology.

The announcement comes a day after Elpida Memory Inc, Japan's last big maker of standard computer memory chips, said Intel had agreed to invest an extra $23 million in it, lifting the U.S. chip giant's total investment to $123 million.

That investment is aimed at helping Elpida accelerate the production of DDR2 SDRAM (double-data rate synchronous DRAM) chips for use with a new Intel microprocessor, targeted at high-performance personal computers and servers.

© Reuters