Intel Committing $300 Million Toward Improving Its Workforce Diversity

LAS VEGAS -- Intel will commit $300 million over the next five years toward giving minorities and women “full representation” at all levels of its workforce by 2020, company CEO Brian Krzanich announced Tuesday during his keynote a the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The initiative comes after a year of calls for increased diversity within Silicon Valley.

The money will be used for the hiring, progression and retention of minorities within Intel, Krzanich said. It will also be used to fund various initiatives designed to increase the pipeline of women and minorities entering the tech field.

Intel will hold its leaders accountable to this goal by having them regularly report progress and by tying their pay to it. “This isn’t just good business. This is the right thing to do,” Krzanich said.

In 2014, various tech companies -- including Google, Twitter, Facebook, Apple and others -- released figures outlining the diversity in their workforces and announced their intentions to hire more minorities. Intel's announcement is the strongest commitment yet and was commended by Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was in attendance Tuesday evening. Jackson spent much of 2014 lobbying for the tech companies to be more inclusive in their hiring.

“It wasn’t just words -- [Krzanich] is going to invest resources to make it happen,” Jackson, who was in attendance Tuesday, told the International Business Times. “Now it’s time for goals and progress and a time table to make it happen -- and a commitment to oversee it.”