Long focused in personal computers on supplying operating system software, while leaving the hardware side to others, a move into the hardware side of the business would be a bold shift in direction.
Other Intelligent Energy world's firsts in recent years include the development of the world's first hydrogen fuel cell motorbike and supplying the fuel cell system to Boeing which powered the world's first manned fuel cell aircraft.
Intel has already pushed Nvidia out of the business of supplying computer chipsets, the digital nervous system that all processors plug into to power PCs and laptops.
This will eventually form part of a water control system comprising at least four other dams and pipelines, controlling rainfall in the Lesotho mountains and supplying fresh water to South Africa.