Cloud-gaming company Gaikai Inc has announced that Intel Capital is among the companies that have invested in it, with the chip giant insisting it is backing the transformation of gaming.

Gaikai is a cloud-based game streaming company, headed up by Dave Perry using technology created by co-founders Andrew Gault and Rui Pereira.

Gaikai gained a big burst of publicity recently when CEO Perry showed World of Warcraft running on an iPad, using the service.

"Intel's mind-blowingly fast CPUs have had a profound effect on our business model, allowing us to stream more games simultaneously while offering users a premium experience," said CEO Perry

"Having Intel Capital buy into our vision as much as we buy into their processors makes this a great deal for both companies,"

Future of gaming

Intel believes that it is investing in an exciting growth are for gaming with calling Gaikai a 'leading provider'.

"Innovations in both content delivery technologies and the supporting data center architectures are transforming the future of gaming by enabling the distribution of leading edge games on a wide variety of connected devices to internet users worldwide," said Lisa Lambert, Vice-President, Intel Capital.

"Gaikai's innovative interactive content network positions the company as a leading provider in the emerging area of cloud-based gaming and we look forward to working with Gaikai to provide new data center capabilities to support their technologies."

Interestingly, Intel invested $500,000 in another online games provider, GameTree.TV, back in December 2009.

On-demand software, platform and infrastructure specialist Limelight Networks was also named as a key investor.