Intel seems to have quite a bit of interest in RISC-V.

They even have a pipecleaner chip using a SiFive core with all the rest being Intel IP.

RISC-V could be their ticket into the phone space.

Finally, Intel knows x86 sucks. They've tried FOUR different times to move off of x86 (iAPX 432, i960, i860, and EPIC). Every one has failed spectacularly.

RISC-V offers an offramp. Patent all the best methods of combining x86 and RISC-V on a chip the release your backward compatible RISC-V + x86 chip. Businesses will buy that chip for decades to remain backward compatible and your patents will guarantee you another 20 years of profits.