Startup Funding: February 2023


The cost of borrowing is going up, but investors continued to pour money into the chip industry in February. Collectively, 132 companies raised more than $4.5 billion last month. One of the big beneficiaries was quantum computing, with nine companies drawing a total of more than $500 million. The bulk of that went to a quantum software and services company spun out of Alphabet, but plenty wa... » read more

Startup Funding: October 2022


Investors poured $3.5 billion into 113 startup companies in October 2022, especially new battery technology, AI hardware, and faster memory access. Battery technology dominated the fundraising in October thanks to the U.S. Department of Energy and four funding rounds that exceeded $200M. The DOE awarded sizeable grants to help 20 companies, including six startups, build out battery material ... » read more

Startup Funding: April 2021


April showers brought mega fundraising rounds to the semiconductor industry. In China, a mobile chipset maker looking to go public won significant funding along with partnerships with major smartphone companies. In the US, AI hardware startups are drawing interest with unique processor architectures and business models. Plus, a major test and design services company drew new investment. This mo... » read more

Week in Review: IoT, Security, Auto


Internet of Things Microsoft this week introduced IoT Plug and Play, a no-code toolkit for connecting Internet of Things devices to the cloud. The company touts it as a new modeling language to pump up the capabilities of IoT devices through the Microsoft Azure cloud service. The Azure IoT Device Catalog lists devices that support IoT Plug and Play, such as the STMicroelectronics SensorTile.bo... » read more

February ’19 Startup Funding: Big Cash Keeps Rolling In


Sixteen startups received private funding rounds of $100 million and up during February, including three that took in 10-figure rounds. Those 16 companies raised more than $8 billion in total. The SoftBank Vision Fund invested $1.5 billion in China's Chehaoduo, an online car trading group that includes Guazi.com, a used-car trading platform, and Maodou.com, which retails new sedans through d... » read more

December ’18 Startup Funding: Big Rounds As 2018 Ends


During the month of December, 16 startups had private funding rounds of $100 million and up, with half of them in the mobility area. Those 16 rounds totaled $3.2 billion as the year concluded. Before the holidays, the SoftBank Vision Fund invested $500 million in Cambridge Mobile Telematics, provider of the DriveWell platform used by insurers, vehicle fleets, wireless carriers, and others to... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing


Chipmakers 3D NAND continues to gain steam, but is the industry headed towards a capacity glut in the overall NAND market? Time will tell. In any case, Toshiba is moving forward with its plans to invest in its Fab 6 facility in Japan. The fab will produce the company’s 96-layer 3D NAND devices. Then, Samsung plans to invest $7 billion to double the production capacity for NAND flash memor... » read more