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Quantum Speed
Semiconductor Weekly - Business | Investing | Technology
Quantum Circuits raises $25.5M from Sequoia Capital
2024 Lam Capital Venture Competition
Quantum Circuits raises $25.5M to stay ahead of quantum computing supremacy
image by Quantum Circuits
Quantum Speed! Quantum Circuits (QCI), based in Connecticut and developing scalable quantum computing systems, has raised $25.5 million in a Series B funding round. Led by Sequoia Capital Partners.
The round brings the total raised by the quantum computing company since it was established in 2015 to $84 million.
QCI is focused on building a quantum computing platform that leverages the principles of quantum mechanics to solve complex problems that are currently beyond the capabilities of classical computers.
Founded by leading scientists and engineers from Yale University, QCI aims to make quantum computing commercially viable and accessible.
QCI’s technology includes superconducting qubits, which are essential for creating highly efficient and powerful quantum computers.
Sequoia Doubling Down: Sequoia Capital's investment in Quantum Circuits underscores the firm’s belief in the vast potential of quantum computing.
Sequoia partnered with Quantum Circuits in 2017 by co-leading its $18 million Series A along with Canaan Partners
"No team has done more to pioneer the superconducting approach to qubits than the QCI founders and their collaborators at Yale, who are responsible for the key breakthroughs bringing solid-state quantum computing to feasibility".”
What’s Next: With the new funding, Quantum Circuits plans to scale up its operations, enhance its quantum computing platform, and accelerate the development of its technology
The new CEO, Ray Smets, anticipates the company will begin selling its quantum computing capabilities in the cloud as a service this year.
2024 Lam Capital Venture Competition: Celebrating Innovation in Semiconductor Technology
image: Kevin Chen’s LinkedIn
Competition! This Monday (June 3rd), Lam Research Capital brought together over 200 chip technologists, investors, and entrepreneurs to explore the future of semiconductors.
Many vibrant discussions focusing on key semiconductor technologies critical for the development of future chips - advanced packaging, higher manufacturing productivity solutions, integrated optics and photonics, 2D materials and processes, and smart tools.
“Minimizing costs, managing increasing complexity, and addressing sustainability concerns are some of the biggest challenges the industry faces in driving semiconductor breakthroughs.”
Crystal Sonic wins the competition securing a $250,000 investment
Crystal Sonic helps semiconductor manufacturers reduce waste and cost by enabling thin device lift-off and substrate re-use.
LIDROTEC, led by CEO Alexander Igelmann, was the runner-up
LIDROTEC is a a German startup that makes low-damage laser wafer dicing equipment for cutting semiconductor chips
Lam Research has been investing in chip-related startups for years and it has made 20 investments so far, with $1 million to $10 million going into each startup.
🚀 Funding & Deal
Ixana, based in West Lafayette, Indiana and developing AI-powered semiconductor chips for high-speed human-computer interactions, has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by 10X Founders with participation from Ultratech Capital Partners, Konvoy Ventures, and Scrum Ventures.
Synthara, a Swiss startup developing AI chips for in-memory computing, has raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by Vsquared Ventures, with other new backers OTB Ventures, Onsight Ventures, and Deep Tech Labs participating alongside existing investors.
Intel and Apollo in $11 Billion Joint Venture for Chip Manufacturing Plant in Ireland. Apollo will acquire 49% stake in the Fab 34 facility in Leixlip, Ireland, the U.S. chipmaker’s first high-volume location for its Intel 4 manufacturing process using extreme ultraviolet lithography machines
🧿 Industry on the Move
Global Semiconductor Sales Increase 15.8% Year-to-Year in April; New Industry Forecast Projects Market Growth of 16.0% in 2024. (Link)
TSMC’s May sales rose 30% to NT$229.6B ($7.1B), helped by booming demand for AI and a recovery in some consumer electronics. (Link)
Bank of America analysts predict a multi-year boom for the semiconductor industry, fueled by the surging demand for artificial intelligence. (Link)
Marvell Technology reported a massive jump in first-quarter revenue for its data center division. (Link)
EU Chips Act Set to Attract Over €100 Billion in Private Investment by 2030. (Link)
US officials have slowed the issuing of licenses to chipmakers such as Nvidia and AMD for large-scale AI accelerator shipments to the Middle East. (Link)
Elon Musk prioritizing X H100 GPU cluster deployment at X versus Tesla by redirecting 12k of shipped H100 GPUs originally slated for Tesla to X instead. (Link)
✈️ Across the Globe
🌎 North America
Air Liquide plans to invest over $250 million to build a gas plant supporting the U.S. semiconductor industry. (Link)
Construction of Intel's two new semiconductor plants in New Albany, Ohio, is progressing on schedule. Currently 1,000 construction workers are on site, a number the company expects will grow to 7,000. (Link)
🌏 Asia
Sony's semiconductor unit plans to reduce its capital spending by 30% .
Japanese Semiconductor Industry Renaissance. (Link)
The Japanese semiconductor industry is experiencing a renaissance with renewed investments and innovations. (Link)
VIS and NXP are collaborating to build a semiconductor plant in Singapore. (Link)
Japanese universities are ramping up efforts to train a new generation of semiconductor talent. (Link)
Saudi Arabia aims to establish at least 50 semiconductor design companies as part of a new National Semiconductor Hub. (Link)
🌏 Europe
STMicroelectronics is set to build a $5.4 billion chip plant in Italy with state support. (Link)
imec and ASML opened their jointly run High-NA EUV Lithography Lab in Veldhoven, the Netherlands. (Link)
Microsoft will invest 33.7 billion Swedish crowns ($3.2 billion) to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in Sweden. (Link)
🗼 In-Depth & Insights
“The level of optimization or efficiency that an NPU is going to give you is going to be dramatic compared to what the same thing would take on a GPU or a CPU. So, looking forward, the advantages of an NPU, of having an NPU inside of your SoC, are just going to be more and more with every release of every new network.”
“While the EC had originally proposed funding only cutting-edge chip plants similar to the US CHIPS Act, EU governments and lawmakers have widened the scope to cover the whole value chain, including older chips and research, along with design facilities. However, the envisaged funds for this ambitious purpose are woefully insufficient.”
“Enabling AI, both inside EDA tools and in the systems being developed, requires some fundamental changes in the design process. One of the keys to making all of this work is that it has to be a vendor-agnostic ecosystem, but not all EDA players want to play with other EDA players".”
“The transformation from traditional CPU-based architectures to accelerated computing will impact the industry as it will require more silicon area than conventional architectures of the past.”
“Apache Iceberg is an open-source table format designed to handle large analytic datasets in data lakes and data warehouses. Iceberg addresses key challenges associated with big data, such as ensuring high performance, managing schema evolution, and enabling ACID transactions.”
