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Black Raspberry
Semiconductor Weekly - Business | Investing | Technology
Black Semiconductor raised €254.4M from in a combination of private and policy funding
Raspberry Pi debuted on London Stock Exchange
Black Semiconductor nabs one of the largest funding rounds for a European semiconductor startup
image by Black Semiconductor
Funding secured! Black Semiconductor secured €254.4 million in funding, one of the largest for a European deep tech company.
The German federal government (70%) and the State of North-Rhine-Westphalia (30%) injected whopping €228.7 million (7-year program), which is a combination of equity and non-dilutive funding based on the ‘Important Project of Common European Interest’ provision
An additional €25.7 million in equity funding was led by Porsche Ventures and Project A Ventures.
Founded in 2020 by Dr. Daniel Schall and Sebastian Schall, Black Semiconductor focuses on graphene-based chip technology.
Their technology aims to create powerful chip networks with enhanced performance and energy efficiency.
They plan to enable mass production of graphene semiconductors, addressing current limitations in silicon chip architecture by 2031.
Patrick Huke, Partner and Head of Porsche Ventures: “Our lead investment in Black Semiconductor together with Project A represents a great opportunity, harnessing photonics technology seamlessly integrated into conventional chips for a variety of industries, use cases and future AI applications.”
What’s Next: The funding will accelerate R&D initiatives and establish pilot line manufacturing in Aachen, Germany by 2026
“As traditional chip technology moves closer to its technological and economic limits, our innovation paves the way for faster, more powerful, cost-efficient, and energy-efficient computation.” - Co-founder and CEO Daniel Schal
Raspberry Pi debuted on London Stock Exchange
image credit: Wall Street Journal
Pi on the counter! Raspberry Pi, the renowned single-board computer manufacturer, recently went public with a 32% surge in share prices on first day.
Raspberry Pi is a low-cost, high-performance single-board computer developed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
Initially designed to promote computer science education, it has found widespread adoption in various applications, including industrial automation, IoT projects, and home computing
Growing fast and profitable: In 2023 alone, Raspberry Pi generated $266 million in revenue and $66 million in gross profit
The revenues in 2023 is 41% year-on-year
Its affordability, versatility, and robust community support have made it a favorite among hobbyists, educators, and industry professionals alike.
LSE on the Spotlight: For the LSE, Raspberry Pi's listing adds a prominent tech name to its roster.
Raspberry Pi's successful public offering underscores the growing investor interest in technology companies originating from Europe.
It signals a strong market appetite for innovative hardware solutions and can potentially pave the way for more European tech firms to consider IPOs.
What's Next After IPO: With a robust financial foundation, Raspberry Pi is well-positioned to drive innovation and maintain its leadership in the affordable computing space.
Raspberry Pi plans to leverage the raised capital to scale its operations, meet the surging demand for its products, and explore new market opportunities.
🚀 Funding & Deal
Tenstorrent, a Toronto-based company specializing in developing all-purpose AI chips, is rumored to be raising a $300 million round led by Samsung, with participation from LG Electronics, Fidelity Management, and Hyundai Motor Group.
Flow Computing, a Finnish startup developing licensable on-die Parallel Processing Units (PPUs), has emerged from stealth with €4 million in pre-seed funding led by Butterfly Ventures and FOV Ventures.
Rocket Lab has signed preliminary terms to receive up to $23.9 million in funding under the CHIPS Act. This investment will expand Rocket Lab’s production of semiconductors for spacecraft and satellites.
Rebellions, a South Korean AI chip design startup, is merging with Sapeon Korea, an AI chip firm backed by SK Telecom. The merged entity, valued at $1.5 billion, will be focusing on state-of-the-art neural processing unit (NPU) technology.
Speaking of SK Telecom, they have announced a $10 million investment in generative AI search engine startup Perplexity AI. Previously, they also chipped in $100 million in Anthropic last August.
🧿 Industry on the Move
Broadcom raises annual revenue forecast, citing robust demand across key markets including cloud and networking. (Link)
Microsoft aims to secure 1.8 million AI chips by the end of the year to bolster its AI capabilities. (Link)
Intel repurposes Sharp's LCD panel factory for semiconductor backend processes to enhance production capabilities. (Link)
Samsung unveils advanced 2nm and 4nm process nodes, with plans for 3D-ICs, custom HBM, and backside power delivery by 2027. (Link)
Global semiconductor equipment sales shrink in Q1 2024, with Taiwan experiencing a sharp decline while China doubles its investments. (Link)
DRAM revenues rise 5.1% in Q1 2024, with prices expected to increase by up to 18% in Q2 2024. (Link)
AI notebook penetration rate is predicted to jump from 1% in 2024 to 20% in 2025, with annual shipments expected to reach 173.5 million units. (Link)
Revenues decreased 4.3% quarter-over-quarter for the top 10 global foundries in Q1 2024, mainly due to seasonal order reductions and economic headwinds. (Link)
The semiconductor packaging materials market is poised for significant growth, driven by rising demand for advanced packaging solutions. (Link)
✈️ Across the Globe
🌎 North America
🌏 Asia
Singapore is shaping its semiconductor ambitions through strategic investments and education initiatives. (Link)
Singapore lands a $7.8 billion semiconductor plant for automotive and industrial chips. (Link)
The Philippines, which produces 20% of the world’s chips, must rethink its role in the global supply chain. (Link)
The US has surpassed China as ASEAN’s largest export destination thanks to the U.S.'s increasing procurement of semiconductors and electrical parts. (Link)
Toshiba will invest $640 million in semiconductors, focusing on EVs and the electric grid. (Link)
🌏 Europe
France-based Kalray and Israeli startup Pliops intend to merge, focusing on improved data acceleration SoCs for AI and storage. (Link)
🗼 In-Depth & Insights
“Groq takes a software-defined approach where flow control is orchestrated by the compiler. When a tensor is read out of memory and destined to a functional unit to be operated on, the compiler knows exactly how long it is going to take. This approach allows for a simpler and more efficient hardware architecture that executes a predetermined script.”
“There is no technical reason why there shouldn't be discrete NPUs. However, discrete GPUs can provide enhanced AI performance if needed, and the likely limited demand for a discrete NPU means that it’s very unlikely that they will be economical to produce.”
“The coming tsunami of chiplets will serve to speed up that transition in the data center. As chiplet packaging replaces monolithic ICs, the ability to mix and match fully-programmable CPUs, GPUs, GPNPUs (general-purpose, programmable NPUs) and other processing engines for a given task will impact the data centers first.”
“American talk of bringing chipmaking back is a ‘political show’. Despite the global subsidy boom, Taiwan’s relative cost advantage is intact: Wendell Huang, TSMC’s finance chief, has said American fabs cost four to five times more to build than those on the island.”
“As for semiconductors, perhaps transistors are not the right metric to track progress because the combined decline in hardware and software costs could lower overall compute costs more rapidly than Moore’s Law would suggest. Besides, the Wright’s Law states that for every cumulative doubling of units produced, cost will fall by a constant percentage.”
🗣️ Echoes of Wisdom
“Chip industry is still at the end of a down cycle” - by Michael Heckmeier, CEO of Siltronic
“TSMC will will be a trillion-dollar company by 2025” - by Motley Fool
“Arm's market share in Windows, in the next five years, could be better than 50%." - by Rene Haas, CEO if ARM Holdings
📈 Chart of the Week
The US is spending more money on chip manufacturing construction this year than the previous 28 years combined (Link)
