The need for semiconductors has increased exponentially with the boom in artificial intelligence workloads. And now there is a new venture capital fund focused on funding the next generation of startups building leading edge hardware.
What’s happening:
- Venture capital fund Imec.xpand has raised €300M to invest in startups focused on accelerating innovation in semiconductors
- Imec.xpand is specifically focused on funding new semiconductor startups, chip makers and hardware manufacturers within Europe
Why it matters:
- Semiconductors have become critically important to the boom in artificial intelligence computing power, which has also led to a influx of new funding for data centres to host the GPUs and hardware required for cloud computing
Going deeper:
- The Imec.xpand venture fund is a spin out from Imec, one of the largest research institutions in the world focused on microelectronics
By the numbers:
- Earlier this year European policymakers passed the Chips Act, which committed €43B to in funding to rapidly accelerate the domestic manufacturing of semiconductors
The intrigue:
- The need for semiconductors has also brought a renewed focused to critical minerals such as gallium, which are needed to produce and manufacture semiconductors at scale
