US-listed semiconductor company Intel has agreed an unlimited budget to help develop Russia’s equivalent of America’s Silicon Valley, its venture capital hub.
Intel said its corporate venturing unit would be able to finance and develop companies being developed at Skolkovo, outside of Moscow.
At the press conference signing the agreement to invest covered by newswire Reuters, Christian Morales, vice president and general manager of Intel Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "From the Intel Capital standpoint, we have not been risk-averse, until now we have been investing in a lot of new initiatives and we are looking forward to the Skolkovo initiative to scale this level of investments."
Morales said that Intel did not have "budget limitations" for the Skolkovo projects.
Kamil Isayev, chief executive of research and development at Intel Russia, said Intel had invested about $100m in Russia per year over the past few years.
Viktor Vekselberg, an oil and mining tycoon who heads the Skolkovo foundation, which is overseeing the hub’s construction, said: "By the end of the year we plan to sign an agreement with a joint venture of Nokia and Siemens which has long been interested in a partnership with us."
The latest interest follows agreements between Cisco and Microsoft to set up development centres at Skolkovo.