Intel is quietly handing one of its crown jewels to a tiny, stealthy startup. And that startup is run by a longtime business partner of Intel’s own chief executive.
The chipmaker is giving RosaicLabs access to its Atom processor technology, according to a source and documents reviewed by Reuters. Atom is the building block of its central processors. It is a rare move for Intel, which almost never licenses pieces of its x86 architecture.
Rosaic is led by Amarjit Gill, a veteran chip executive and venture investor. He and Intel boss Lip-Bu Tan are longtime co-investors. The pair helped build the founding team at Rivos, a chip startup that Meta bought last year, outbidding Intel, while Tan was its chairman. Both also backed Nuvia, later sold to Qualcomm.
What Intel is actually handing over
The transfer is not trivial. Intel aims to ship Rosaic the register-transfer level (RTL) code for Atom. That is the low-level blueprint describing how the chip works.
It gives a customer deep exposure to Intel’s intellectual property, one veteran chip executive said, enough to build their own custom designs. Atom itself is built for low power and low heat, which suits mobile and edge devices.
Rosaic is barely public. It filed its first Delaware incorporation papers in May and has no website or LinkedIn page, as is common for chip startups working in secrecy. Its founding team includes veterans of Rivos, and an amended July filing shows it can raise a $10m seed round.
Why it looks awkward
The optics are the story. Intel is deep in a hard turnaround under Tan, who has pushed aggressive cost-cutting and tried to open up its foundry to outside customers. Licensing its IP is part of that plan.
But handing rare access to a company run by the chief executive’s former investment partner, staffed by alumni of the startup that once outbid Intel, invites obvious questions. Reuters has previously reported on deals that boosted Tan’s personal fortune. Intel declined to comment, and Gill did not respond.
There is a strategic logic, too. Intel rarely shares its x86, and opening Atom to a nimble startup could seed markets it cannot chase alone. Rivals are already racing to build custom silicon for the AI era. Whether that outweighs the governance questions is what Intel’s board, and its investors, will have to weigh.
