Intel has pledged an amount of $50 million for a pandemic response technology initiative to fight against the global COVID-19 crisis. 

This initiative, by the giant chip-maker, aims to provide greater access to technology for healthcare, speeding scientific research as well as online learning for students.

In a recent company release, Intel stated, “Included in Intel’s effort is an additional innovation fund for requests where access to Intel expertise and resources can have an immediate impact. This is in addition to prior announcements of $10 million in donations that are supporting local communities during this critical time.”

Intel is also working to fund artificial intelligence and high-performance computing work in order to aid researchers in improving diagnosis, treatment, and vaccine development for this deadly disease. On the education front, funds will also provide devices and online learning resources to students who are in need during this lockdown.

When asked, Intel chief executive officer Bob Swan said that, as the world is facing an enormous challenge in fighting COVID-19, the company is committed to accelerating access to technology that can combat the current pandemic and enable new technology and the scientific discovery that better prepares society for future crises.

“We hope that by sharing our expertise, resources and technology, we can help to accelerate work that saves lives and expands access to critical services around the world during this challenging time,” said Swan.

The release further stated that approximately $40 million of the fund will be used for Intel COVID-19 Response and Readiness and Online Learning initiatives. This will help in accelerating customer and partner advances in diagnosis, treatment and vaccine development, leveraging technologies such as AI, high-performance computing and edge-to-cloud service delivery. 

The company is aiming to aid healthcare and life sciences manufacturers to increase the availability of technology and solutions used by hospitals to diagnose and treat COVID-19.

And, the remaining fund will be used in an innovation fund addressing requests from external partners and employee-led relief projects, supporting critical needs in their communities. Alongside, the Intel Online Learning Initiative will support education-focused non-profit organisations and business partners by providing students with technology-led resources.

Further, the statement said, Intel is working with India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research along with International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, to deploy Intel client and server solutions. This will help in achieving faster and less expensive COVID-19 testing and coronavirus genome sequencing to understand the epidemiology and AI-based risk stratification for patients with comorbidities. 

The company is also collaborating with India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies to build an application ecosystem and multi-cloud back end to enable population-scale COVID-19 diagnostics, to predict outbreaks and to improve medical care management and administration.

Also, Intel claims that the Medical Informatics Corp.’s Sickbay platform, powered by Intel technology, is a solution that can turn beds into virtual ICU beds in minutes, help protect critical care workers from the risk of exposure with clinical distancing and expand their care capacity.

In the UK, the company is working with Dyson and medical consultancy firm TTP to supply FPGAs for CoVent, a new ventilator designed explicitly in response to the UK government’s request for help. The ventilator is pending regulatory approval and is intended to be bed-mounted.

Alongside, in a recent LinkedIn post, Prakash Mallya, the managing director of Intel India, Sales & Marketing Group stated that — “Proud to work for a company that is deeply committed to contributing to the cause of fighting #COVID19 and supporting our customers and partners during these trying times.”

“Intel technology underpins critical products and services that global communities, governments and healthcare organisations depend on every day. We hope that by harnessing our expertise, resources, technology and talents, we can help save and enrich lives by solving the world’s greatest challenges through the creation and development of new technology-based innovations and approaches,” the company said.