The private placement will give Intel about a 1.5 per cent stake in Infineon when shares start trading on March 13, and is accompanied by Infineon's cooperation with Intel in the production of Rambus DRAM products, Intel's preferred memory format for use alongside its high performance microprocessors.

The two companies have also agreed to share roadmaps for future technology and Intel is expected to take a guaranteed proportion of the output of a 300mm wafer fab Infineon plans to build at one of its existing manufacturing locations.

Infineon announced this week that it would float 26 percent of itself on the Frankfurt and New York stock exchanges, with Siemens retaining majority ownership. The shares are expected to be priced in a range of $29 to $35.

Two years ago Infineon lost about $600 million but returned to profit last year on strengthening DRAM prices. However, although application specific chips are now in short supply, prices for standard DRAM memory chips have fallen in recent weeks.