Cray- the world’s most famous and the original supercomputer designer and manufacturer is selling a major part of its technology portfolio to Intel for $140 million, a move that will shift up to 74 Cray employees to Intel. Cray’s Chippewa Falls Wisconsin location has built some of the world’s fastest supercomputers for more than five decades and are experts in interconnecting servers with highly efficient technologies. The company builds supercomputers  for governments, research centers, corporations and universities.

The sale involves Cray's interconnect hardware assets and intellectual property. In addition to receiving the cash, the company is forming a new partnership with Intel, giving it "opportunities to leverage important differentiating features of certain future Intel products," the company said in a news release. Cray will also continue the development, sales and support of its current product lines, as well as the company’s next-generation supercomputer, code-named “Cascade,” which will use Intel's x86 chips. Furthermore the agreement also gives Cray access to “certain future Intel products,” according to a company statement.

Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray said the agreement represented “an exciting win” for the firm’s customers, the company and its shareholders. Ungaro added that by broadening Cray’s relationship with Intel, the firm was better placed to push further into the HPC market and expand on other technologies related to its “Adaptive Supercomputing Vision.” Cray’s stock rose 24.3 percent to $8.75 after the announcement.

Cray now has about 875 employees, including about 100 at its headquarters in Seattle. The company wouldn't say exactly where the 74 interconnect team members are located, but there are large concentrations in Seattle and Chippewa Falls, Wis.