Intel Spearheads A $3.5 Billion Effort Aims to Help Tech Start-Ups – Hire Grads – Invest in America Alliance

Technologists have been worrying aloud for years that America is losing its competitive edge as other countries invest more heavily in technology education and innovation.

To counter that trend, Intel and 24 venture capital firms said Tuesday that they planned to invest $3.5 billion in American start-ups over the next two years.

In addition, Intel, Google, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and 13 other employers pledged to add jobs in 2010 — specifically by hiring 10,500 graduates of American colleges, largely those with computer science and engineering degrees.

The initiative, called the Invest in America Alliance, is spearheaded by Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, and was announced on Tuesday by the company’s chief executive, Paul S. Otellini, in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Full Story: http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2010/20100223corp.htm