Intel injects $67 million in 8 domestic robotics, cloud, data startups

Intel Corp has invested a total of $67 million in eight Chinese technology startups, in an effort to give it an edge, it said, in emerging sectors such as next-generation smart devices, robotics and cloud services.

The investment comes less than a month after the United States-based multinational pumped more than $60 million into a Shanghai-based drone maker, Yuneec International Co Ltd.

Twelve Chinese companies have received capital injection from Intel this year, including a roughly $1 billion investment in a mobile chip set subsidiary under the State-owned Tsinghua Unigroup. The US company has now invested nearly $2 billion into more than 140 Chinese companies since 1998.