Arvind sodhani biography of barack obama
Today: Intel, HP, Facebook and Google are joining in President Barack Obama’s Startup America Partnership. Plus: A chip design flaw will cost Intel $1 billion. Google’s Android platform led the global smartphone market during the holiday quarter.
Startup America
Four Silicon Valley tech powerhouses — Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Facebook and Google — are joining a White House-led effort to back high-growth startups throughout the U.S.
AOL founder Steve Case will be chairman of the private Startup America Partnership, which is receiving launch funding from his foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
Intel — the Santa Clara chip bellwether — is committing $200 million to invest in tech startups in addition to its $200 million Invest in America effort announced last year.
“Intel is dedicated to creating a culture of investment in the United States that supports American startups and the country’s future competitiveness,” Intel Capital President Arvind Sodhani said in a company news release.
Facebook — the Palo Alto social networking upstart — will host 12 Startup Days to give early-stage companies engineering and design help. “Startup Days are monthly events for entrepreneurs to work and hack with us to build new apps and websites that incorporate the latest social technologies,” Facebook’s Douglas Purdy wrote on a company blog.
According to the Startup America website, Hewlett-Packard — the Palo Alto tech titan — is investing $4 million in the HP Learning Initiative for Entrepreneurs, which was launched in 2007.
“At HP, we know what it takes to build a startup ‘from the garage up,’ and we see a huge opportunity for our technology, expertise and relationships to support entrepreneurs,” Stephen DeWitt, senior vice president and general manager of HP’s personal systems group, said in a company news release.
Google — the Arvind Sodhani is one of those investors who isn’t blinking. But he’s not your typical venture capitalist. Sodhani is the chief of Intel Capital, the venture arm of the world’s biggest chip maker. He just closed on a billion-dollar investment in Clearwire, a provider of WiMax broadband wireless service that has raised $3.2 billion total to create a next-generation cell phone network through a merger with Sprint. That’s just one of many bets Sodhani is placing. While other VCs may be panicking, he says Intel will keep a steady hand and invest in the best startups as it finds them. VB: You recently closed on the billion-dollar investment in Clearwire that got started before the downturn and just closed after the downturn was underway. Did you have to have a discussion about a change in valuation? AS: It was announced in May and had to wait for regulatory approvals, which just came recently. The valuation was agreed upon at the time of the signing, and the deal was pretty much done at that point in time. There was no valuation change. VB: How is the downturn changing what Intel Capital does? AS: Not much has changed on our side. We will continue to invest. My belief, shared by the CEO of Intel, is that you continue to innovate in a downturn, and innovation doesn’t stop because of slowdowns. We’ll continue to invest in technology innovation. The good news is valuations will be more attractive. I think other investors will pull back. We have heard a lot of stories about the venture capital community pulling back. Depending on the life-stage of the fund, VCs are not funding existing companies or new companies. VB: So do you have to step forward to make the deals happen? AS: We will continue to invest in the same manner that we always have. You will not see much of a pullback from us. But we will see a much different valuation picture. We are already seeing that. VB: Intel Corp., one of the world’s largest makers of computer components, is planning to sell part of its venture capital unit, assets that could be worth as much as $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The Santa Clara, California-based company is working with UBS Group AG to look for potential buyers for the assets, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The portfolio, which is made up of companies around the world, is housed within Intel’s corporate venture unit, Intel Capital, the people said. Intel restructured its venture capital unit in January with President Arvind Sodhani’s retirement after 35 years with the company. He was replaced by head of mergers and acquisitions Wendell Brooks. Discussions over the structure of the sale are at an early stage, with Intel open to selling the assets as a whole or divided by geography or sector focus, the people said. The sale is expected to attract private equity houses that specialize in buying portfolios, known as secondaries firms. Since its start in 1991, Intel Capital has invested about $11.6 billion in more than 1,440 companies in 57 countries across a range of sectors including security, wearable technology, and digital media, according to the company’s website. Last year, the unit invested $514 million in 143 companies, split almost evenly between new ventures and follow-on investments. A spokeswoman for UBS declined to comment. Intel Capital’s Brooks declined to comment. BLOOMBERG NEWS ©2025 Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC Intel Capital and IBM are investing a combined US$350 million in a new effort by President Barack Obama’s administration to encourage entrepreneurs and mentor new businesspeople. The White House announced the new Startup America initiative, a national campaign to promote entrepreneurship, on Monday. IBM will invest $150 million in the private-sector-led effort and Intel Capital will invest $200 million, in addition to $200 million that Intel has already pumped into its similar Invest in America Alliance, launched a year ago. “Intel is dedicated to creating a culture of investment in the United States that supports American startups and the country’s future competitiveness,” Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president, said in a statement. Startup America, with more than $400 million in funding commitments from private businesses, will focus on advising entrepreneurs, providing seed investments in new companies and expanding programs in schools and colleges that help students start their own company, White House officials and other participants in Monday’s launch event said. New businesses in the current economic environment need access to investment capital, said Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Other nations are working hard to build their entrepreneurial cultures, he said. “If you just go get the Fortune 500 list, it’s quite clear that some of the biggest employers in the nation … started in somebody’s garage,” Goolsbee said. “It’s the creation of new ideas that keep America the premier economy in the world. We want to do Startup America because everybody deserves at least one chance to change the world.” Entrepreneurs create jobs and help expand the economy, Obama said in a statement. “Entrepreneurs embody the promise of America: the belief that if you have a good idea and are willing to work har
Interview with Arvind Sodhani: Intel Capital isn’t backing off on venture