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: December 2022


The month of December saw six rounds of $100 million or more. The largest, at a massive half-billion dollars, will support manufacturing of 12-inch monocrystalline silicon polished wafers and epitaxial wafers in China. The company is aiming for a production rate of 1 million pieces a month when current expansion is completed. Also in the half-billion club last month is a company making auton... » read more

Startup Funding: November 2022


November was a month for mega-rounds, with ten companies receiving investments of at least $100 million. One of those is a startup providing connectivity solutions for data centers and enabling use of the memory pooling functionality in the latest update to the CXL standard. Two quantum computer startups were part of the $100M+ club this month — one using very cold atoms to take on not only q... » read more

Startup Funding: May 2022


May was another strong month for China as it continues its push to build a native semiconductor ecosystem. Over half the month's total funding went to startups in the country. Over half the companies funded were from China as well, including two FPGA companies, three making CPUs, a GPU startup, and numerous networking and wireless chip companies. Two of those, in FPGAs and CPUs, raised rounds s... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


EnSilica listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market under the ticker ENSI. EnSilica designs mixed signal ASICs for system developers in the automotive, industrial, healthcare, and communications markets. It also has a portfolio of core IP covering cryptography, radar and communications systems. AIM is the LSE’s market for small and medium sized growth companies. "In connection with Admi... » read more

Week In Review: Design, Low Power


Tools Synopsys introduced a new model for using its EDA tools on the cloud. Synopsys Cloud provides pay-as-you-go access to the company's cloud-optimized design and verification products, with pre-optimized infrastructure on Microsoft Azure to address higher levels of interdependencies in chip development. "As more design flows incorporate AI, requiring even more resources, the virtually unlim... » read more

Week In Review: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Automotive Verizon and Cisco demonstrated a C-V2X network for autonomous driving in Las Vegas that avoids using costly physical roadside units to extend radio signals. Instead, Verizon and Cisco say their test proved that Verizon’s LTE network and public 5G Edge with AWS Wavelength, together with Cisco Catalyst IR1101 routers in connected infrastructure, were adequate to meet the latency nee... » 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: Auto, Security, Pervasive Computing


Data center, 5G security Nvidia won approval for its Mellanox Technologies Ltd. deal from China, according to an article on Bloomberg. Mellanox chips split up and manage AI datasets for parallel processing, which can be used in data centers for computing. Rambus has released security for 800 Gigbit Ethernet MAC (media access control) for enhanced data center and 5G infrastructure. It secure... » read more

A New Approach to Metrology


The startup Active Layer Parametrics Inc.'s ALPro 50 metrology tool offers “depth profiling of electrical properties at atomic-level resolution” —and automated processing with direct data transfer. The continuing miniaturization of microchips and nanochips has propelled the use of atomic-layer deposition and atomic-layer etch processes in semiconductor manufacturing. With miniaturization... » read more

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