Intel has set up a $300 million fund that will go toward increasing diversity in the workforce, CEO Brian Krzanich said at the company’s CES press conference earlier today.
CES Snapshot: After Gamergate, Intel to Invest $300 Million in Diversity
The goal is to increase women and minorities among its workforce by 14 percent in six years.
Nick Knupffer/IntelPR
The chipmaker pledged to have “full representation at all levels in our workforce” and increase the population of women and minority groups at least 14 percent by 2020, Krzanich said. Intel plans to work with nonprofit groups and educators to make this happen.
Intel’s goal comes after Gamergate, a women-in-gaming controversy that Intel stepped into last year when it pulled advertising from a gaming site. But it’s timely for other reasons, too: Intel is taking action just as some Silicon Valley companies are starting to reveal that their workforces are made predominantly of white or Asian males.
Krzanich also showed off Intel’s new button-sized, low-powered module for wearable makers. It’s called Curie (its predecessor was Edison, but it was about time for a lady name), and it is built with Intel’s new Quark SE chip. Both are part of the company’s vision for new wearable products; Mike Bell, who runs new devices at Intel, said in a briefing ahead of the press conference that Intel will be selling these modules “later this year” with an open source software solution called Viper.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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