The company was founded in 1968 by Robert Noyce (Noyce, Robert) and Gordon Moore (Moore, Gordon E.), who had invented the integrated circuit while working at Fairchild Semiconductor (Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation). They formed their own company, NM Electronics, in order to manufacture large-scale integrated (LSI) circuits. The two men were soon joined by Andrew Grove, and they changed the company's name to Intel (from “integrated electronics”).

The LSI circuits that Intel began making late in 1968 were semiconductor memories, which were then 10 times more expensive than magnetic core memories (the industry standard at the time). The company achieved its first breakthrough in 1970 with the 1103, a one-kilobyte dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) that was the first chip with the capacity to store a significant amount of information. In 1971 Intel introduced the 4004, a chip containing 2,300 transistors (transistor) that was the world's first microprocessor. (A microprocessor is a chip that contains all the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry necessary to perform as the central processing unit 【CPU】 of a computer.) With these products, Intel's semiconductor chips began to replace magnetic cores as the memories of computers.

Intel's 8080 (introduced 1974) was an eight-bit microprocessor; i.e., it processed information in groups of eight bits (bit) (binary digits) at a time. The world's first general-purpose microprocessor, the 8080 provided some of the first microcomputers used in cash registers, automatic teller machines, and a wide range of consumer products. International Business Machines (IBM (International Business Machines Corporation)) chose to use Intel's 16-bit 8088 microprocessor (introduced 1978) in its first personal computer (PC), and, because IBM's PC design was widely accepted, the 8088 and subsequent Intel microprocessors became a standard for all PC-type machines. In the following years Intel produced a series of faster, more powerful microprocessors. Some of the more noteworthy microprocessors in its PC (x86) line include: 80286 (1982), 80386DX (1985; its first 32-bit x86 processor), 80486DX (1989), Pentium (1993), Pentium Pro (1995), Pentium II (1997), Pentium III (1999), Pentium 4 (2000), Pentium D (2005; its first x86 dual processor), Intel Core 2 Duo (2006), Intel Core 2 Quad (2007; four processors).

Although the company faced growing competition starting in the 1990s, especially from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Intel microprocessors were installed in some 80 percent of new PCs year after year. This market dominance grew following the move of Apple Inc., in 2005, to change its line of Macintosh computers to Intel's microprocessors from the PowerPC microprocessor, manufactured by IBM and Motorola, Inc.

In order to increase consumer brand awareness, Intel began subsidizing computer advertisements in 1991 on the condition that the ads included the company's “Intel inside” label. Under the cooperative program, Intel set aside a portion of the money that each computer manufacturer spent annually on Intel chips, from which Intel contributed half the cost of that company's print and television ads during the year. Although the program directly cost Intel hundreds of millions of dollars each year, it had the desired effect of establishing Intel as a conspicuous brand name. In 2008 Intel began requiring participants to spend 35 percent of the cooperative budget on Internet ads. In addition, Intel announced that it would shift 50 percent (up from 15 percent) of its own $300 million annual advertising budget to Internet ads by 2010.