Latest news with #Nanotronics
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The CEO building the 'Ikea of factories' wants to democratize semiconductor production
New York-based Nanotronics builds compact, modular semiconductor plants called "Cubefabs." Its goal is to improve chip-making to be more time and cost-efficient, enabling factories to run with fewer workers. "The vision is that any region — whether in the Global South or the United States — should be able to produce what it needs locally," CEO Matthew Putman told BI. In his 1986 book "Engines of Creation," engineer K. Eric Drexler — often called the godfather of nanotechnology — made a prediction. "The coming era of molecular machines will mean the end of many limits: the limit of scarcity, the limit of slow development, the limit of ignorance enforced by the lack of tools," he wrote. Reading those words a few years later, when he was 16, Matthew Putman started thinking. "Our bodies work as these little micro-machines where you have ribosomes and enzymes and things that are working and replicating and making things all the time, but our factories work the way that they've worked for the last hundred years," Putman told Business Insider he thought at the time. He wondered how a world would look "where you don't have large assembly lines, you don't have smokestacks, you instead just make things so perfectly," he said. Putman became fascinated by the possibilities of machines that are "atomically precise." It wasn't until the recent AI boom, however, that the idea really took off with fabrication plants. Putman, now 50, is the CEO of Brooklyn-based Nanotronics, which he cofounded with his father in 2010. The company started out building microscopes and tools to detect defects in semiconductors, among other materials. Now, it builds small, modular semiconductor manufacturing plants called Cubefabs. While the biggest fabs in the country are often millions of square feet in size, Cubefabs measure anywhere from 25,000 square feet for the smallest units up to about 60,000 square feet for a full-sized fab. They're adaptable, and the company says they can be assembled in under a year in most places on Earth. They're also smart — thanks to the power of AI — so they can self-monitor their production and improve in real time, the company said. And they're relatively cheap, costing a minimum of $30 to $40 million, compared to large fabs that can cost billions to build. With President Donald Trump back in the White House and pledging to reinvigorate US manufacturing, a new opening has emerged for Nanotronics — even as sweeping tariffs challenge companies that produce or depend on semiconductors. Putman says that in the long term, the tariffs will bolster domestic innovation. Tariffs "should be a wake-up call — a push to create something better than what either the US or China has done before," he told BI in a video interview from the Nanotronics headquarters in Brooklyn Navy Yard. "If we get this right, American innovation won't just protect our future — it could help redefine global progress in a way that benefits humanity." Putman says compact, modular factories are exactly that. "Your factory should be incredibly small," Putman said, gesturing to the room behind him. "Eventually, it could be the size of this room." Semiconductor manufacturing has surged since the launch of ChatGPT. Global annual revenue for the industry is expected to reach more than $1 trillion by 2030, according to McKinsey & Company. In the US, despite legislation subsidizing domestic semiconductor production, fabs are more expensive to construct and maintain than those built in places like mainland China and Taiwan, McKinsey says. The US also suffers from a shortage of qualified labor, which can delay construction timelines, according to the firm. To attempt to solve some of these issues, Nanotronics teamed up with architecture firm Rogers Partners and engineering firm Arup to design compact factories. Each one runs with 37 people, but Putman says the ideal setup is four factories — about 180 workers total — which allows them to scale up without halting production. "It's like the Ikea of factories," Putman said. The company has raised $182 million to date from firms including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. Cubefabs can be used to produce chips that span a range of uses across electronics applications, electric vehicles, and photodetectors for cube satellites, Putman said. "The more precise we make things, the more abundance we bring to the world," he said. "The business of making things grow bigger and bigger starts small — molecular small." Building on the foundational research of scientist Philippe Bove — now chief scientist at Nanotronics — the company also uses gallium oxide — a type of semiconductor that can handle more power than traditional materials like silicon — to produce advanced chips. The company plans to have its first installation set up in New York within the next 18 months. "These fabs do not require billions in capital expenditure or large populations of highly trained workers," Putman told BI in a follow-up email. "The vision is that any region — whether in the Global South or the United States — should be able to produce what it needs locally." Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
The CEO building the 'Ikea of factories' wants to democratize semiconductor production
In his 1986 book "Engines of Creation," engineer K. Eric Drexler — often called the godfather of nanotechnology — made a prediction. "The coming era of molecular machines will mean the end of many limits: the limit of scarcity, the limit of slow development, the limit of ignorance enforced by the lack of tools," he wrote. Reading those words a few years later, when he was 16, Matthew Putman started thinking. "Our bodies work as these little micro-machines where you have ribosomes and enzymes and things that are working and replicating and making things all the time, but our factories work the way that they've worked for the last hundred years," Putman told Business Insider he thought at the time. He wondered how a world would look "where you don't have large assembly lines, you don't have smokestacks, you instead just make things so perfectly," he said. Putman became fascinated by the possibilities of machines that are "atomically precise." It wasn't until the recent AI boom, however, that the idea really took off with fabrication plants. Putman, now 50, is the CEO of Brooklyn-based Nanotronics, which he cofounded with his father in 2010. The company started out building microscopes and tools to detect defects in semiconductors, among other materials. Now, it builds small, modular semiconductor manufacturing plants called Cubefabs. While the biggest fabs in the country are often millions of square feet in size, Cubefabs measure anywhere from 25,000 square feet for the smallest units up to about 60,000 square feet for a full-sized fab. They're adaptable, and the company says they can be assembled in under a year in most places on Earth. They're also smart — thanks to the power of AI — so they can self-monitor their production and improve in real time, the company said. And they're relatively cheap, costing a minimum of $30 to $40 million, compared to large fabs that can cost billions to build. With President Donald Trump back in the White House and pledging to reinvigorate US manufacturing, a new opening has emerged for Nanotronics — even as sweeping tariffs challenge companies that produce or depend on semiconductors. Putman says that in the long term, the tariffs will bolster domestic innovation. Tariffs "should be a wake-up call — a push to create something better than what either the US or China has done before," he told BI in a video interview from the Nanotronics headquarters in Brooklyn Navy Yard. "If we get this right, American innovation won't just protect our future — it could help redefine global progress in a way that benefits humanity." Putman says compact, modular factories are exactly that. "Your factory should be incredibly small," Putman said, gesturing to the room behind him. "Eventually, it could be the size of this room." The 'Ikea of factories' Semiconductor manufacturing has surged since the launch of ChatGPT. Global annual revenue for the industry is expected to reach more than $1 trillion by 2030, according to McKinsey & Company. In the US, despite legislation subsidizing domestic semiconductor production, fabs are more expensive to construct and maintain than those built in places like mainland China and Taiwan, McKinsey says. The US also suffers from a shortage of qualified labor, which can delay construction timelines, according to the firm. To attempt to solve some of these issues, Nanotronics teamed up with architecture firm Rogers Partners and engineering firm Arup to design compact factories. Each one runs with 37 people, but Putman says the ideal setup is four factories — about 180 workers total — which allows them to scale up without halting production. "It's like the Ikea of factories," Putman said. The company has raised $182 million to date from firms including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. Cubefabs can be used to produce chips that span a range of uses across electronics applications, electric vehicles, and photodetectors for cube satellites, Putman said. "The more precise we make things, the more abundance we bring to the world," he said. "The business of making things grow bigger and bigger starts small — molecular small." Building on the foundational research of scientist Philippe Bove — now chief scientist at Nanotronics — the company also uses gallium oxide — a type of semiconductor that can handle more power than traditional materials like silicon — to produce advanced chips. The company plans to have its first installation set up in New York within the next 18 months. "These fabs do not require billions in capital expenditure or large populations of highly trained workers," Putman told BI in a follow-up email. "The vision is that any region — whether in the Global South or the United States — should be able to produce what it needs locally."
Forbes
10-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Future Of AI Investing: How Semiconductors Are Shaping The Game
focus hand of businessman show virtual graphic data connect with AI to sucess everything, ... More Futuristic data technology. When looking for new opportunities to grow your wealth, one of the most exciting sectors right now is artificial intelligence (AI). But for AI to reach its full potential, it needs the right infrastructure, and that's where semiconductors come in. The traditional silicon-based chips that power everything from smartphones to data centers are starting to show their age. As the demand for more computing power—especially from AI—grows, we're seeing limitations in energy efficiency, heat generation, and scalability. Creating a unique opportunity for investors to tap into a new wave of innovation in the semiconductor industry, where startups are developing groundbreaking technologies that could change the way we think about computing—and, ultimately, how we invest. Whether you're looking to diversify your portfolio or want to stay ahead of the curve, understanding the changes happening in this sector could significantly benefit your financial strategy. Three startups—Biological Blackbox (BBB), Nanotronics, and Positron—are challenging the status quo with alternative approaches that could reshape the way we power an AI in the future. Although these companies aren't yet publicly traded, their innovations hint at transformative changes that may impact industries, economies, and investment strategies for decades to come. Biological Blackbox (BBB) is exploring a radical approach that integrates living neurons into AI hardware. Its Bionode platform places lab-grown neurons, derived from either human stem cells or rat tissue, onto a microelectrode array with thousands of contact points. These neurons can rewire themselves in response to real-time inputs, offering the potential to process vision tasks and accelerate large language models with far greater energy efficiency than conventional chips. If successful, the Bionode concept could significantly reduce the energy footprint of AI workloads while introducing a level of dynamic adaptability rarely seen in traditional semiconductor design. If BBB is rethinking what chips are made of, Nanotronics is reimagining how they're manufactured. Traditional semiconductor manufacturing often involves massive facilities, lengthy supply chains, and multi-billion-dollar investments. Nanotronics turns that on its head with Cubefabs—modular, AI-powered microchip production facilities poised to redefine the industry. By reducing the footprint and cost of chip fabrication, the startup empowers smaller organizations—whether universities, research labs, or local tech ventures—to participate in building next-generation hardware. This shift aligns with a broader movement toward decentralized manufacturing. Rather than depending on centralized mega-fabs, Nanotronics' model promises to lower barriers for innovation and speed up hardware development cycles. As the industry deals with global supply chain disruptions and escalating demand for specialized AI chips, the company's streamlined production systems could become a critical link in the semiconductor value chain. Positron, based in Reno and founded in 2023, is focused on specialized processors designed explicitly for AI inference—the stage where trained models run real-world tasks. Using Intel's Altera FPGAs, Positron's flagship product, the Atlas system, offers performance aimed at surpassing leading GPUs on both speed and power efficiency. Early reports indicate the system may achieve significantly faster throughput than Nvidia's latest GPUs, along with better performance per dollar and lower power consumption. Unlike GPUs, which are designed for a variety of workloads, the Atlas system narrows its scope to AI inference, thereby avoiding many inefficiencies of more general-purpose hardware. This specialization is intended to meet the needs of data centers facing rising energy costs, while also fitting neatly into U.S.-based manufacturing and supply chains—an area poised for growth, thanks to incentives like the CHIPS Act. Looking ahead, Positron plans to develop a custom ASIC by 2026 with high memory capacity to maintain an edge in a market that demands ever-increasing efficiency. Silicon's dominance is running up against physical limits at the same time that AI's hunger for compute power continues to expand. Organizations like the International Energy Agency have noted data center electricity usage could double within a few years, with AI being a central driver. BBB, Nanotronics, and Positron each address a different piece of the solution—bio-based design, agile manufacturing, and specialized performance—offering a glimpse into what the future of hardware might look like. While investors can't purchase shares of these private companies yet, the ripple effects of their progress may be felt across multiple sectors, from commodities linked to advanced materials to funds focused on sustainable technology. Acquisitions or partnerships with industry leaders could also shape market dynamics, making it valuable to watch how these startups evolve. For anyone looking to build a forward-thinking investment strategy, keeping track of emerging technologies like these can offer a competitive edge. Whether it's through direct investments in these companies, or related sectors, these new approaches to semiconductor design and manufacturing could be the key to staying ahead in an increasingly tech-driven world.
