Intel Spending $300 Million to Bolster Women and Minority Hiring

This week during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, massive chip-maker Intel announced plans to allocate $300 million to bolster the company's efforts to support diversity and inclusivity. Intel will use the funds to support a new hiring and retention initiative called Diversity in Technology, which aims to achieve "full representation of women and under-represented minorities" at the company by 2020.

"Full representation means Intel's U.S. workforce will be more representative of the talent available in America, including more balanced representation in senior leadership positions," Intel said.

"We're calling on our industry to again make the seemingly impossible possible by making a commitment to real change and clarity in our goals" -- Intel CEO Brian Krzanich

As part of Intel's Diversity in Technology initiative, the company said it plans to "build a pipeline" for more female and under-represented engineers and computer scientists. The funds will also go towards hiring and retention efforts for women and minorities, and also to fund programs to "support more positive representation within the technology and gaming industries."

"We're calling on our industry to again make the seemingly impossible possible by making a commitment to real change and clarity in our goals," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said. "Without a workforce that more closely mirrors the population, we are missing opportunities, including not understanding and designing for our own customers."

Intel will work with a number of partners to achieve its Diversity in Technology goals, including the International Game Developers Association, the E-Sports League, the National Center for Women in Technology, the CyberSmile Foundation, Anita Sarkeesian's Feminist Frequency, and Rainbow PUSH.

In addition, Intel said it plans to "deepen its engagement" with education institutions, and expand its partnerships with computer science and engineering programs at a range of colleges and universities, including minority-serving schools.

In a statement, Intel explained that its new diversity efforts come after the "recent confluence of events related to women and under-represented minorities." Intel didn't mention the campaign known as GamerGate outright, but the firm found itself associated with it last year. The company temporarily pulled an advertising campaign on game industry site Gamasutra after it was targeted by people claiming to represent GamerGate for a story about gamer culture.