Author: Techtime

Jon Medved: “After the War, We’ll See a Sharp Rise in Investments”

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In a conversation with Jon Medved, the driving force behind the OurCrowd capital raising and investment platform, it’s clear that he is deeply involved in the war effort. “This generation is unlike any other in terms of courage and dedication. Our children are on the front lines, and our role is to safeguard the economy.” Born in the United States, Medved communicates the Israeli story to leading global media outlets and maintains daily and close contact with venture capital firms and international partners to show them how the Israeli industry continues to operate and expand even during wartime.

In an interview with Techtime, he explains that the response in the financial world is very positive and discusses his anticipation of renewed growth in the Israeli tech industry after “the victory and the end of the war.” Medved noted, “War is always a bad sign for investments. When the cannons roar, investors do not sign checks. But if you look at the Israeli economy over the past 25 years, you’ll see that after every war, there is an increase in investment volume. Wars do not deter the overall growth of Israel’s gross domestic product. This is also evident in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange data: sharp declines when the war breaks out, followed by a significant upswing when it ends.”

Private Investors in the Masses

Jon Medved founded the OurCrowd platform in 2013, and it has become one of the prominent investment platforms in the tech sector. Today, it includes over 225,000 registered investors who have invested in approximately 425 companies, with a total investment volume of around $2.2 billion. This platform is considered the most active tech investor in Israel, with 63 successful exits to its name. It has led to investments in numerous electronics companies, such as NeuReality, Hailo, Celeno (which was sold to Renesas), Core Photonics (sold to Samsung), Argus (sold to Continental), and more.

“We built a platform that allows individual investors to select companies for investment after passing a comprehensive review by us and being selected by our investment committee. We also raise capital and investments from our partners (50 international firms like SoftBank, Stifel and Orix). For these investments, we invite the masses – currently, there are around quarter of a million investors from 195 countries.” OurCrowd employs about 200 people, with 150 in Israel and the rest in 15 offices worldwide. The platform expanded its activity beyond the Israeli market to global territories, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, and more.

How is the industry responding to the war?

“Everyone is fighting on multiple fronts simultaneously. It starts with employees being called up to the reserves, and companies are dealing with a shortage of human resources. According to our estimates, 10%-20% of the workforce has been called up to the reserves. Those remaining in civilian life work harder and perform many more tasks. Companies need to retain their customers and convince them that they can continue to operate and even develop under wartime constraints. The second front is the investment front, where some companies manage to secure investments and even raise capital. Now, government assistance is coming as well: the Israeli Innovation Authority announced a fund of 400 million shekels, and I believe that this amount will increase significantly.

“We are also engaged in the war effort. We have invested in mPrest, the company that developed the Iron Dome control and command system, in Cyabra, which is making strides in the fight against fake news, and in a company that provides cyber protection for Israel’s electric and water systems. We have companies like UAV developers, an incubator in Kiryat Shmona, and companies operating from Sderot, just one kilometer away from the Gaza border. So, as a company, we are involved in the war effort from all directions.”

The U.S. Government’s Mobilization Sends a Message to the Markets

“We are preparing for a protracted war. The army is preparing the people for a war that will last months, not weeks, and we need to provide our companies with the tools to deal with such a situation. To continue raising capital and benefit from the sense of partnership within the nation. Fortunately, investors respond to our calls and provide support, which I hope will not only continue but also increase. While institutional investors hesitate, there is a massive awakening of entities friendly to Israel. The U.S. government’s mobilization sends a significant message to the markets.

“We have never seen such donation efforts as we are seeing now. A lot of money is coming to Israel from overseas donors. We estimate that significant funding will be directed to academia and hospitals. The tech sector needs to ensure that this awakening reaches it as well. We need to continue channeling funding to companies that are the heart of the tech sector. This heart primarily thrives on foreign capital: 80% of the capital invested in Israeli tech comes from abroad. I believe this will continue. Investors are reaching out to us and asking how they can help.”

“Competitors Have Called to Express Concern and Solidarity”

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The war caught Hailo, a Tel Aviv-based company, during an accelerated move of launching their new product, the Hailo-15 AI vision processor, designed to bring artificial intelligence processing capabilities to  video cameras. In a special interview with Techtime, Orr Danon, the co-founder and CEO, revealed that despite many of their employees being recruited for military service, Hailo continues to operate without disruption. “We employ approximately 200 people in Israel and around 25 more overseas. Since a significant portion of our workforce is comprised of young individuals, many of them have been recruited to the army. At any given moment, several dozens of our employees are serving in the military reserves,” Danon noted.

How is your organization managing the situation?

“We have put in place a support system for our reserve soldiers, sending them required supplies based on their needs. Meanwhile, our remaining staff has stepped up their efforts beyond their usual roles. Our approach emphasizes that while functioning during such times isn’t easy, maintaining business continuity is an integral part of the fight against terror. We convey this message to our customers, ensuring that all our meetings and visits with them continue to demonstrate our operational capability and unwavering commitment to support them during these challenging circumstances. In parallel, we encourage employees to volunteer, even on account of work hours, to contribute to the home front’s war effort.”

Can you describe the status of your supply chain?

Currently, we are not encountering any delivery issues. Our primary product, an artificial intelligence processor, and its associated modules are manufactured overseas. The processor is produced by TSMC, a prominent semiconductor manufacturer, and the cards are manufactured by a leading Taiwanese producer. Therefore, we do not face any supply chain disruptions. Approximately 80% of our Israeli employees are engaged in research and development, with roughly 70% of them working as software engineers. This established structure underscores the central role of software in our product.”

How is the market responding to these challenges?

“Many customers are seeking information about our manufacturing locations to ensure that ongoing events do not disrupt our supply. Some who were not previously interested in our supply chain are now inquiring about our business continuity plan and the locations of our manufacturing. We have received supportive messages from numerous clients and business partners. Almost every CEO of a competing company has reached out personally to express concern for our well-being and offer support. This heartwarming response highlights Israel’s technological standing and the global appreciation for Israelis in tech. It reaffirms the essence of the struggle: the battle between terror and progress.”

Enhancing Image Quality within the Camera

Founded in February 2017, Hailo developed a novel architecture for artificial intelligence chips for edge devices, enabling fast and energy-efficient inference tasks on the edge of the network. This architecture is protected by numerous patents and belongs to the rare category of Data Flow Processors. The company’s flagship product, the Hailo-8 AI accelerator, delivers 26 trillion operations per second (26 TOPS) with an average power consumption of less than 2.5 Watts. Presently, approximately 300 companies are utilizing this product, with some already in mass production.

Danon explains, “In early 2023, we introduced the new Hailo-15 AI vision processor, designed to operate within cameras. It leverages our core technology – an artificial intelligence processor for applications in smart cities, security, automotive, industrial automation, and healthcare, among others. Currently, we are delivering engineering samples to leading customers, and by the end of the year, several companies will complete product evaluation. We anticipate some of them will go to mass production as early as 2024.

“One of the Hailo-15 significant capabilities is real-time image enhancement using artificial intelligence. While Hailo-8 aids in post-processing image understanding, Hailo-15 elevates the quality of images on the spot. This brings a novel dimension to security cameras, enabling the enhancement of video images at a remarkable rate of 30 frames per second, a formidable technical achievement that our robust processors make possible.”

Do you have a message for your employees and the industry at large?

“It is essential to contemplate the significance of our work. The current struggle is challenging, both personally and on a national level. These are trying times, but one of the most important actions each of us can take is to resist the defeatist attitude. Faced with the distressing circumstances we are witnessing, our triumph lies in our determination to move forward and continue innovating.”

The Financial Reality behind Intel’s IDM 2.0

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Photo above: Intel’s Fab 34 in Leixlip, Ireland. $200 million for each EUV Lithography machine

In March 2021, Intel embraced the IDM 2.0 strategy and established Intel Foundry Services as the strategic wing that leads multi-billion dollar in investments throughout Europe and the USA. When this move was first announced, it was seen as a direct threat to TSMC – the world’s largest semiconductor contract manufacturing services provider. This was mainly due to Pat Gelsinger, Intel’s CEO and the shaper of IDM 2.0 strategy, stating multiple times that Intel’s goal is to become the world’s most prominent manufacturing services provider.

The idea seemed unreasonable: why would a genuine semiconductor manufacturer who sells their own processors for high-profit margins shift to another business model – a manufacturing services provider with much lower profit margins? The investors also did not find the idea exciting. In March 2021, Intel’s shares were traded at $64 on NASDAQ. Currently, the shares are worth $35.5 with a market cap of $149 billion.

However, Techtime’s visit to Intel’s new factory in Ireland, Fab 34, reveals that the reason behind the new move is technological rather than merely business. To be more precise, the enormous cost of shifting to advanced manufacturing processes.

€17 billion and five years to set up

Last week, Intel inaugurated Fab 34 in Leixlip, Ireland, which brings Intel 4 technology (equivalent to 7nm) to Europe. It is also the first use of EUV (Extreme Ultraviolet) technology in high-volume manufacturing (HVM) in Europe. The construction of the new fab had began in 2019 and had required €17 billion investments. To provide a point of comparison, Intel operates 3 more fabs in its Leixlip campus that use older technologies, and these factories cost a combined total of €13 billion.

It means that building a fab with the latest technology, such as EUV lithography machines, would be a significant financial undertaking. Industry experts suggest that a factory like this would require 10-20 EUV lithography machines, which are only produced by the Dutch company ASML. Each EUV lithography system costs approximately $200 million.

Inside Fab 34 in Leixlip, Ireland. Credit: Intel
Inside Fab 34 in Leixlip, Ireland. Credit: Intel

The construction of the new factory demands using novell chemical materials for the production of RibbonFET transistors, acquiring new and spcialized equipment and process control and measurements, and a significantly larger clean room that meets higher standards. It is improbable that a single company that bears these expenses and only sells its own products would be able to market them at a profitable price. This is why there are only three companies toady active in advanced processes chips: Samsung, TSMC, and Intel. GlobalFoundries was the last independent firm to be involved in this competition, but it withdrew in 2018.

Intel follows Samsung’s model

Samsung, who acknowledged this challenge earlier, developed a business model for producing self-designed chips together with providing manufacturing services to its competitors, such as Apple and Qualcomm. There are also other companies that embraced this approach, although they are not taking part in the advanced technology race. French STMicroelectronics, for instance, has also adopted this approach by balancing production costs by providing manufacturing services to clients like Mobileye.

Intel’s recent move leaves TSMC as the only company solely focused on providing manufacturing services. Currently, TSMC is the primary supplier of advanced chips to Intel’s largest competitors, including AMD and Nvidia. The conclusion is that Intel’s business model does not pose a threat to TSMC, and there is no indication that Intel intends to compete with TSMC. In fact, Intel has taken significant measures to mitigate the risks associated with transitioning to advanced manufacturing processes.

This is crucial if Intel wants to maintain its position as a market leader. During the recent inauguration ceremony in Ireland, Dr. Ann Kelleher, Intel’s VP and general manager of Technology Development, announced that the company is currently developing four new processes: Intel 3, Intel A20, Intel A18, and the cutting-edge Intel Next. Kelleher stated that the company’s goal is to achieve one trillion transistors in a chip by 2030.

Chiplets require an Open Production Floor

The financial revolution is being accelerated by the move towards hybrid components that consist of several Chiplets; each produced using a different process. This shift creates a new business model where modern processors no longer rely on a single CPU chip but instead integrate multiple peripheral chips from other manufacturers onto an advanced substrate that connects numerous tiles.

Intel's Meteor Lake chips. 25% made by Intel, %75 by TSMC
Intel’s Meteor Lake chips. 25% made by Intel, %75 by TSMC

This concept is similar to the IP Model prevalent in the Chip Design industry, where any SoC contains the manufacturer’s own proprietary module, along with multiple intellectual property (IP) modules designed by specialized firms. Adopting multi-tile components expands the IP model to the Hardware Level. But it requires to adjust the nature of production lines. Intel, for instance, utilizes this approach in its new chip, Meteor Lake, where 75% of the surface area of the silicon tiles is manufactured by TSMC, and only 25% by Intel.

This shift necessitates the management of an open production floor that can accommodate tiles produced by other manufacturers while producing their own. It also requires the integration of foreign silicon into Intel’s components and the transfer of Intel’s silicon into other vendors’ components, even if they are direct competitors. To achieve this, Intel appears to have chosen a production model that combines self-development and production, side by side with providing manufacturing services.

The Chinese model travels West

Fab 34 project also reveals the importance role of national governments in the semiconductor industry. The cost of transitioning to advanced processes is so high that even major companies like Intel require government incentives. Similar to the Chinese approach, public funding is used to support production firms and boost local industries that rely on advanced technology to create more jobs.

This is why countries like Ireland and Israel are appealing, and why the CHIPS Act and Science Act drive the build-up of new fabs in the US. Intel is also awaiting now to receive approvals from the EU before it will move to the construction phase of its next European fabs: A wafer fabrication facility in Magdeburg, Germany, and an assembly and test facility in Wrocław, Poland.

Translated by P. Ofer

StoreDot and Volvo to develop Fast Charging Batteries

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Herzeliya (Israel) based StoreDot, has signed a multi-year agreement with Volvo Cars to develop an optimized battery for the next generation Volvo cars. This collaboration, with experts from Volvo Cars and StoreDot working together, is aimed to develop extreme fast charging (XFC) battery cells, optimized and tailored for Volvo’s future electric vehicle architectures. It is expected that the first samples will be delivered for testing next year.

Volvo Cars is already a strategic investor in StoreDot, but this newly agreed collaboration takes the relationship a step further. Dr. Doron Myersdorf, StoreDot CEO, said it is a highly significant agreement for StoreDot. “Our teams are now working together developing B-sample cells for Volvo Cars’ next generation fully electric architectures. The goal is to enable Volvo Cars’ customers to benefit from our XFC battery technology, which enables 100 miles of range in just five minutes of charging.”

StoreDot has developed a unicque Extreme Fast Charging batteries for electric vehicles . It has revolutionized the conventional Li-ion battery by synthesizing proprietary organic and inorganic compounds, enabling to achieve very fast charging. In 2022, the company achieved a world first by demonstrating a live extreme fast charging of an EV battery cell in just 10 minutes.

Recently StoreDot reported performance feedback for the evaluation and integration A-Samples testing phase of its XFC electric vehicle battery cells. The comprehensive testing programs took place earlier this year by 15 leading global automotive brand manufacturers from Europe, Asia, and the US, as well as several of StoreDot’s strategic ecosystem partners.

Stratasys and Desktop Metal’s Merger was Terminated

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The previously announced $1.8 billion merger between the two Additive Manufacturing Solutions providers, Stratasys and Desktop Metal, has been terminated after Stratasys’ shareholders rejected the deal during an extraordinary general meeting held last week. Following the resolution, Stratasys announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a process to explore strategic alternatives for the company, that may include a strategic transaction, potential merger, business combination or sale, or other. Additionally, Stratasys’ shareholder rights plan (“Poison Pill”) was extended for three more months.

Stratasys re-activated the Rights Plan in order to prevent hostile takeover, following purchace attempts made by Nano Dimensions and 3D Systems. Since June 2023, Stratasys has received multiple unsolicited proposals from 3D Systems, which was rejected by the board. But the termination of Desktop Metal’s deal provides new opprtunities in this direction. 3D Systems issued a statement regarding Stratasys’ process to explore strategic alternatives, saing that its merger agreement proposal expires on October 5, 2023. “3D Systems is willing to amend its current binding proposal to include a 60-day go-shop period. During this period, Stratasys would be permitted to actively solicit alternative proposals to acquire Stratasys.”

President and CEO of 3D Systems, Dr. Jeffrey Graves stated, “We continue to believe that a combination between 3D Systems and Stratasys presents the most attractive opportunity for Stratasys shareholders and the additive manufacturing industry at large. This amendment reflects our confidence in the superior value of our proposal and our belief that the market has already had more than enough time to evaluate interest in Stratasys, which has already yielded ten offers for Stratasys in the last six months.”

Stratasys provides 3D printing solutions based on polymer materials for industries such as aerospace, automotive, consumer products, healthcare, fashion and education. Its revenues for H1 2023 totalled $210 million, compared with $229 million in H1 2022. 3D Systems offers to buy Stratasys at a price tag of $27 per share. Today the company is traded in NASDAQ for $13.1 per ordinary share.

NeuReality’s First AI Inference Server-on-a-Chip Validated and moved to Production

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NeuReality’s 7nm AI-centric NR1 chip moved its final, validated design to TSMC manufacturing, creating the world’s first AI-centric server-on-a-chip (SOC). A major step for the semiconductor industry, NeuReality will transform AI inference solutions used in a wide range of applications – from natural language processing and computer vision to speech recognition and recommendation systems.

With the mass deployment of AI as a service (AIaaS) and infrastructure-hungry applications such as ChatGPT, NeuReality’s solution is crucial for an industry urgently in need of affordable access to modernized, AI inference infrastructure. In trials with AI-centric server systems, NeuReality’s NR1 chip demonstrated 10 times the performance at the same cost when compared to conventional CPU-centric systems. These remarkable results signal NeuReality’s technology as a bellwether for achieving cost-effective, highly-efficient execution of AI inference.

AI Inference traditionally requires significant software activity at eye-watering costs.  NeuReality’s final steps from validated design to manufacturing – known in the industry as “tape-out” – signals a new era of highly integrated, highly scalable AI-centric server architecture.

The NR1 chip represents the world’s first NAPU (or Network Addressable Processing Unit) and will be seen as an antidote to an outdated CPU-centric approach for inference AI, according to Moshe Tanach, Co-Founder and CEO of NeuReality. “In order for Inference-specific deep learning accelerators (DLA) to perform at full capacity, free of existing system bottlenecks and high overheads, our solution stack, coupled with any DLA technology out there, enables AI service requests to be processed faster and more efficiently, ” said Tanach.

“Function for function, hardware runs faster and parallelizes much more than software. As an industry, we’ve proven this model, offloading the deep learning processing function from CPUs to DLAs such as the GPU or ASIC solutions. As in Amdahl’s law, it is time to shift the acceleration focus to the other functions of the system to optimize the whole AI inference processing. NR1 offers an unprecedented competitive alternative to today’s general-purpose server solutions, setting a new standard for the direction our industry must take to fully support the AI Digital Age.” added Tanach.

NeuReality is moving the dial for the industry, empowering the transition from a largely software centric approach to a hardware offloading approach where multiple NR1 chips work in parallel to easily avoid system bottlenecks. Each NR1 chip is a network-attached heterogeneous compute device with multiple tiers of programmable compute engines including PCIe interface to host any DLA; an embedded Network Interface controller (NIC) and an embedded AI-hypervisor, a hardware-based sequencer that controls the compute engines and shifts data structures between them. Hardware acceleration throughout NeuReality’s automated SDK flow lowers the barrier to entry for small, medium, and large organizations that need excellent performance, low power consumption and affordable infrastructure – as well as ease of use for inferencing AI services.

“We are excited about our first generation NAPU product, proven, tested, and ready to move to manufacture. It’s full steam ahead as we reach this highly anticipated manufacturing stage with our TSMC partners. Our plan remains to start shipping product directly to customers by the end of the year,” says Tanach

NeoLogic Unveils Novel Processor Design Technology at 16nm, Promising Significant Power, Cost, and Area Reductions

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Israeli processor technology startup NeoLogic is launching a groundbreaking processor design technology that is poised to revolutionize chip design. The company expects to tapeout an ARM processor at 16 nanometers for demonstration this December. The technology and the processor will be available for evaluation to key selected customers.

NeoLogic’s Quasi-CMOS technology serves as a platform for processor design. It delivers high computing power in tandem with reduced power consumption and cost.

The company has completed the development of new, non-existing, standard cells for the 16nm technology node, on top of the existing CMOS standard cells library. NeoLogic’s standard cells are single-stage high fan-in (8 to 16 inputs), among others, leading to up to 50% reduction in power consumption compared to the most advanced equivalent CMOS cells while saving up to 40% of the area.

The technology was conceived to address the increasing workloads in data centers and the need to reduce the high costs associated with developing processors using advanced technology nodes. Designing processors with Quasi-CMOS delivers superior computing power per watt per millimeter square, catering to the escalating workloads of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analysis, video streaming, and more in data centers.

CMOS technology, which has been the “workhorse” of processor design and fabrication for the past 40 years, is nearing its limits and is challenging to improve. Quasi-CMOS breaks through these limitations by significantly increasing the maximum number of inputs of standard cells and by changing their topology to reduce the number of transistors. This breakthrough benefits the logic synthesis as well as the physical design.

Dr. Avi Messica, Co-founder and CEO of NeoLogic, stated: “Utilizing Quasi-CMOS for processor development delivers a technological leap in performance. Our design technology enables us to design a 16nm processor that delivers performance equivalent to more advanced – sub 16nm – technology nodes, while saving development (NRE) and manufacturing (OPEX) costs. Reducing the processor’s power consumption in data centers leads to significant cost savings (cooling, electricity, infrastructure).”

NeoLogic, which recently secured an 8-million-dollar seed funding, was founded in 2021 by Dr. Avi Messica (CEO) and Ziv Leshem (CTO), both of whom have decades of experience in R&D and management of microprocessors design and fabrication. Dr. Avi Messica (Ph.D. Weizmann Institute of Science) is an expert in solid-state physics and quantum devices and in ultrafast transistors in particular with 26 years of managerial experience in a variety of hi-tech companies. Messica previously served as a device group manager at Tower Semiconductors and has hands-on experience in the design and fabrication of CMOS devices. He also served as VP of Engineering at Shellcase and founded and served as the CEO of three semiconductor companies in the fields of image sensors, MEMS-based optical switches, and photonic chips.

Ziv Leshem has 25 years of experience in processor design. He worked for some of the world’s leading semiconductor companies, such as National Semiconductors, DSPG, and Synopsys, and managed complex processor design projects. He was one of the founders of LogixL, a company that developed a hardware-based HDL simulator and also served as a manager at NewSight Imaging, a developer of LiDAR and iTOF sensors. Before founding NeoLogic he was the manager of the physical design group at Inomize where he managed a group of engineers and developed processors for customers in various industrial sectors in CMOS technologies ranging from 40nm to 7nm.