[gary_0]

Intel is well aware that their x86 IP isn't the secret sauce it used to be. If RISC-V takes over the world, they won't be caught off-guard.

[jabl]

Maybe, but I think the more immediate motivations are

- Get customers for their fab services division, now that they're making a serious push to fab 3rd party chips.

- Help RISC-V threaten ARM at the low end, thus taking away attention and resources ARM could otherwise use to compete with x86 servers.