An EPROM microchip die showing the detail of the integrated circuit itself and the silver wires which connect the die to legs of the chip. The image covers an area of approximately 5×4 mm. Photo: Zephyris via Wikicommons.

CTech – Against the backdrop of an ongoing chip crisis and what could be a global shortage lasting years, a new Israeli unicorn aiming to increase semiconductor processing power is coming out of the shadows. NextSilicon, which has developed an innovative solution to boost supercomputers, has already raised more than $200 million, but has done so under the radar, despite recently being valued at $1.5 billion.

NextSilicon was founded in 2018 by Elad Raz, a serial entrepreneur who sold his last startup to Mellanox Technologies in 2014. The company has already completed three funding rounds. It recently completed a $120 million round led by Third Point Ventures, which has also invested in the likes of Verbit and SentinelOne, and with the participation of Playground Global, Aleph, Yuval Ariav, the Schusterman Family Investments, Amiti and Liberty venture funds.

NextSilicon collaborates with the largest computing centers in the world using supercomputers to pursue advanced scientific breakthroughs in the fields of molecular dynamics, DNA sequencing, clean energy, and natural disasters to name a few.

2020 was an exciting year for the company in terms of business and technology, as NextSilicon doubled its workforce to 150 employees. It is now actively recruiting hardware and software engineers to join the teams in Tel Aviv, Yokneam, Jerusalem, and Be’er Sheva. Raz told Calcalist that with the latest funding round, NextSilicon has sufficient runway for the next five years of growth and the production of three generations of chips and products.

“NextSilicon is a unique company in the semiconductor startup industry. Its technology leverages software algorithms as the main driver to speed up compute-intensive applications,” said Raz, CEO of NextSilicon, which is believed to have annual revenue in the tens of millions of dollars.

“NextSilicon’s architectural concept is revolutionary in terms of the efficiency and scale of silicon-based computing platforms,” said Yuval Ariav, managing partner of Symbol and NextSilicon’s first investor and current board member. “This innovation will completely reshape the computing industry, and perhaps more importantly will dramatically boost scientific research and development. I expect that Elad and his team will change the way the global tech community perceives the potential of the Israeli startup ecosystem.”