Imec spin-off Vertical Compute raises 20 million euros for development of AI-optimized chips

chip wafer 3nm TSMC

Belgian company Vertical Compute has raised 20 million euros. With it, the company aims to develop an alternative architecture that brings data closer to computing power, and eliminates memory inefficiencies.

Imec spin-off Vertical Compute has closed a €20 million funding round. The company wants to tackle the memory wall with a new type of chip: a major bottleneck in AI applications.

According to CTO Sébastien Couet, the so-called memory wall is one of the biggest obstacles to further progress in AI. Traditional memory technologies such as SRAM in CPU cache and DRAM come with limitations. SRAM is very fast but expensive, nor is DRAM cheap while consuming a lot of energy. That lack of efficiency poses a bottle neck, while CPU and accelerated computing power is increasing smoothly.

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Imec spin-off Vertical Compute raises 20 million euros for development of AI-optimized chips

The demand for data-intensive AI applications also continues to grow. Vertical Compute aims to solve the problem by using a new chiplet architecture, which allows for faster and more efficient processing of large amounts of data, as well as moving data closer to computing power.

By bringing data closer to computing power through vertical integration, Vertical Compute hopes to reduce energy consumption by up to 80 percent and dramatically improve the performance of AI models. This approach can also improve privacy by reducing the amount of data sent to remote servers.

European ambition

The funding was led by Imec.xpand and supported by Eurazeo, XAnge, Vector Gestion and Imec. Vertical Compute, has its headquarters in Louvain-la-Neuve and R&D sites in Leuven, Grenoble and Nice.

The company was founded by Sylvain Dubois, former Google employee, and Sébastien Couet, ex-Imec. With the funds raised, Vertical Compute aims to both accelerate the development of the technology and recruit a leading team of engineers. According to Dubois, a goal is to reposition Europe more strongly in the semiconductor sector.

The next few years will show the extent to which Vertical Compute can realize its ambition to overcome the memory wall.