IBM (IBM) and Lehman Brothers (LEH) have jointly announced a US$20 million investment in VeriSilicon, a Shanghai-based original equipment manufacturer for integrated circuit design.

The investment will be done through the China Investment Fund, a commercial alliance co-established by IBM and Lehman Brothers in October 2006 to promote Chinese enterprises' financial and business shift through innovative services and technologies.

VeriSilicon will make use of the funds to accelerate the development of its system on chip platform and expand its special IC turn-key service. VeriSilicon has already authorized IBM to use its PowerPC core in IBM's products and will work with Big Blue to promote the service.