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Semiconductor Weekly - Business | Investing | Technology
Frore Systems Raises $80M to Expand Cooling Technology for AI Chips
Chips in Space: AI and computing beyond Earth
Frore Systems Double-Down to Enhance Solid-State Chip Cooling Solutions
image by Frore Systems
Cooling down! Frore Systems, a San Jose, CA based company creating solid-state chips designed for active device cooling raised $80 million in a Series C funding round led by Fidelity, with participation from Prosperity7 and insiders including Mayfield, Clear Ventures, Addition, Qualcomm Ventures, MVP Ventures, and Stepstone Group.
“Heat is by far the biggest hurdle we need to overcome in computing, and to meet the massive performance increase needed for intense AI workloads.”
MEMS technology: Their key product, AirJet, uses MEMS technology to provide efficient, noiseless cooling by utilizing air as a liquid for heat dissipation.
The AirJet is a flat, rectangular air cooling module that weighs as little as eight grams depending on the version.
This compact form factor allows it to be installed in devices such as smartphones that don’t have room for a traditional fan
Still using fan?!: According to Frore, its technology is better than traditional fans at managing a phenomenon known as the boundary layer.
Frore's technology surpasses traditional fans in managing the boundary layer, a key factor in effective cooling
Noise free - it doesn’t generate any noise as it is based on a solid-state design without a significant number of moving parts
What’s Next: “Cooling is critical to enable the performance needed to realize the full promise of AI”
Using its Series C funding, Frore plans to scale up production and integrate AirJet technology into a wider range of electronic devices.
They aim to establish partnerships with leading electronics manufacturers to drive the adoption of their cooling solutions in the market.
Chips in Space on the Spotlight
image credit: Loft Orbital
Semiconductor to the Space Colossus, formerly known as Zephyr Computing Systems, is at the forefront of the artificial intelligence (AI) computing hardware market for space, having achieved space heritage for its radiation-tolerant processor as part of Loft Orbital’s YAM-6 satellite
The AI-enabled GPU hardware is now actively functioning in orbit, demonstrating its capability to handle complex tasks such as real-time data processing and machine learning operations directly in space.
To the point With AI-enabled chips in space, satellites and other space-based systems can process data in real-time, reducing the need for constant communication with ground stations and improving efficiency.
Aerospace semiconductor market valued at over $35 billion in 2023
AI hardware in space opens new possibilities for space exploration and observation - better Earth monitoring, improved communication systems and sophisticated scientific research.
There’s more Continued collaboration between tech companies, space agencies, and research institutions will drive further innovation in space-based computing technologies
Expanding the applications of AI-enabled hardware beyond traditional space missions to areas such as deep space exploration, interplanetary communication networks, and autonomous space habitats will be a key focus moving forward.
🚀 Funding & Deal
Absolics, an affiliate of Korea materials company SKC, will receive up to $75 million in direct funding under the U.S. CHIPS Act for the construction of a 120,000 square-foot facility in Covington, Georgia.
Expedera, a company specializing in energy-efficient Neural Processing Unit (NPU) intellectual property for automotive, AR/VR/MR, and smartphones, has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by indie Semiconductor.
Axus Technology, based in Chandler, Arizona, raised $12.5 million in funding of a growth-equity round from IntrinSiC Investment
ZeroPoint Technologies AB, a startup specializing in on-chip data compression, has raised $5.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Matterwave Ventures, with participation from Industrifonden, Climentum Capital, and Chalmers Ventures.
NcodiN, a French tech company specializing in optical interposer technology, has raised €3.5 million in funding. OVNI Capital joined the round along with Elaia and Earlybird Venture Capital.
RaiderChip, an AI processor IP licensing startup based in Solares, Spain, has raised €1 million in a seed funding round.
🧿 Market on the Move
According to IDC, the global automotive semiconductor market revenue is projected to exceed $8.5 billion by 2027, driven by the rising demand for ADAS, electric vehicles, and the Internet of Vehicles. (Link)
RISC-V adoption is predicted to grow by 50% annually until 2030, driven by AI advancements and increasing demand in industrial and automotive sectors. (Link)
NAND Flash Industry Revenue Grew 28.1% in 1Q24, Growth Expected to Continue into Q2. (Link)
Texas Instruments is being urged by Elliott Management to reconsider its aggressive fab expansion strategy. (Link)
Synopsys reported second-quarter fiscal year 2024 revenue of $1.455 billion, representing a 15% increase year-over-year (Link)
✈️ Across the Globe
🌎 North America
CHIPs for America and NATCAST released a 2024 roadmap for the U.S. National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC). (Link)
The U.S. only had 10% of the world’s chip manufacturing capacity in 2022 but the country is projected to grow its fab capacity by 203% in the next decade. (Link)
IBM will invest CAD$187 Mn (~US$137Mn) in Canada’s semiconductor industry, with the focus on advanced assembly, testing, and packaging operations (Link)
🌏 Asia
The Korean government has announced a 26 trillion won ($19.03B) support package for its semiconductor industry, aiming to halve the construction time for the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster. (Link)
SK Group's CEO emphasized the importance of clean energy in selecting sites for further investments in the semiconductor sectors of Japan and the U.S. (Link)
Rapidus announced that their new semiconductor plant in Hokkaido is set to be completed by January 2025, with a test line operational by April (Link)
AMD is investing approximately NT$5 billion (~US$155M) in a new R&D center in Taiwan to focus on AI, next-generation semiconductors, and 5G technology. (Link)
India is being considered as a solution to the workforce shortage in the U.S. semiconductor industry (Link)
Malaysia to train 60,000 engineers in bid to become chip hub. (Link)
🌏 Europe
UK Semiconductor Institute announced to support key components of the government’s Semiconductor Strategy. (Link)
ASML teams up with Dutch university to boost semiconductor research. (Link)
VSORA, CEA-Grenoble, and Valeo were awarded $7 million from the French government to build low-latency, low-power AI inference co-processors for autonomous driving and other applications. (Link)
🗼 In-Depth & Insights
“Intel can no longer finance its strategy through retained earnings and must engage with the investor community to obtain financing. Not only did Intel miss the GPU transition business, but it also lost the CPU business because of the system transition.”
“Qualcomm has a longstanding history of power efficiency in consumer electronics. Its Snapdragon platform is at the heart of smartphones, tablets, watches, headphones, glasses, VR headsets, automotive devices —and soon laptops.”
“The global semi ecosystem with our expanded scope, surpasses $900 billion by 2028 and will approximate $1 trillion by 2030. There is a massive market shift away from general-purpose x86 toward parallel AI computing architectures or matrix computing to support AI.”
“With the CHIPS Act, everyone now recognizes that semiconductors are fundamental to operation in the modern economy. But the way in which they are part of the modern economy is very different across different sectors.”
