$73m CHIPS funding for Vertical Semiconductor
Vertical Semiconductor has announced it has signed a letter of intent with the US Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Research and Development Office (CRDO) to receive up to $73m in federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act.
The proposed incentives are expected to accelerate research and development of next-generation vertical GaN power transistors, unlock domestic production of this technology for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications.
Spun out of MIT, Vertical Semiconductor is developing vertical GaN FinFET technology that drives efficiency and power density in power systems for AI data centres and critical energy infrastructure. The company is scaling up a technology originally invented with the support of the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E).
“Power is the most significant bottleneck in the build-out of AI infrastructure,” said Cynthia Liao, CEO and co-founder of Vertical Semiconductor. “The CHIPS R&D award will accelerate Vertical Semiconductor’s R&D and commercialisation initiatives for vertical GaN, which will expand American compute capacity within existing power constraints.”
Led by Vertical Semiconductor in collaboration with commercial partners, this vertical GaN R&D and commercialisation initiative aims to culminate in a first-of-its-kind 2.5-MW AI rack designed to reduce energy losses by 30 percent, shrink physical footprint by 50 percent, and convert previously wasted electricity into deployable compute capacity.
The project would deploy these transistors across the full AI data centre power chain, driving compounding performance benefits from the grid to the compute.
