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Chip Cooling Startup Corintis Raises $24 Million, Adds Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to Board

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Swiss startup Corintis, which develops advanced liquid cooling systems for semiconductors, announced it has raised $24 million in a Series A round and added Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to its board. The move comes as demand surges for efficient cooling solutions amid the AI-driven boom in high-power chips.

Corintis, based in Lausanne, was valued at about $400 million after the latest funding, a source told Reuters. The company’s technology has already been tested by Microsoft, a customer, which found it up to three times more efficient than conventional cooling systems.

Unlike traditional air-based systems—or most liquid cooling solutions that only draw heat from a chip’s surface—Corintis uses microscopic liquid channels etched inside the chip itself, allowing for more efficient heat removal while reducing power and water consumption.

The company designs its cooling systems using software automation and produces cold plates—metal blocks that transfer heat from chips into circulating liquid—in Europe. These can serve as drop-in upgrades for existing setups or be integrated directly into new chips.

“Right now we are able to produce around 100,000 cold plates per year. Next year we are ramping up to around 1 million,” co-founder and CEO Remco van Erp said. He launched the company in 2022 alongside COO Sam Harrison and another co-founder after spinning out of Lausanne’s Federal Institute of Technology.

The $24 million round was led by BlueYard Capital, with participation from Founderful, Acequia Capital, Celsius Industries, and XTX Ventures. Including earlier funding, Corintis has now raised $33.4 million.

Corintis also appointed Geoff Lyon, founder and former CEO of liquid-cooling firm CoolIT, to its board. Lip-Bu Tan joined as a director before becoming Intel’s CEO in March, and also serves as chairman of venture capital firm Walden International.

The new funds will support team growth—expanding to 70 employees by year-end from 55 today—scaling up manufacturing, and opening U.S. offices to be closer to major customers.

TSMC and Chip Design Firms Use AI to Cut Energy Use in Next-Gen Chips

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The chips powering artificial intelligence consume enormous amounts of electricity, but Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, unveiled new efforts on Wednesday to make them more efficient—by using AI-powered software in the chip design process.

Speaking at a Silicon Valley conference, TSMC showcased strategies it says could boost the energy efficiency of AI chips by as much as 10 times.

Nvidia’s flagship AI servers, for instance, can draw up to 1,200 watts under heavy workloads—comparable to the electricity used by 1,000 U.S. homes if run continuously. TSMC’s approach centers on a new generation of chiplet-based designs, where multiple smaller chips made with different technologies are packaged together to function as a single processor.

To enable these designs, chipmakers are increasingly turning to AI-driven software tools. Partners like Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys debuted new products on Wednesday, built in close collaboration with TSMC. These tools have shown they can outperform human engineers in solving complex design problems—and in a fraction of the time.

“That helps to max out TSMC technology’s capability, and we find this is very useful,” said Jim Chang, deputy director of TSMC’s 3DIC Methodology Group. “This thing runs five minutes while our designer needs to work for two days.”

Still, physical constraints remain. As chips scale up, moving data on and off them via traditional electrical connections is reaching its limits. New approaches, such as optical interconnects to transfer information between chips, must be made reliable enough for deployment in massive data centers.

“Really, this is not an engineering problem,” said Kaushik Veeraraghavan, an engineer at Meta’s infrastructure group during his keynote. “It’s a fundamental physical problem.”

Intel Seeks Investment from Apple Amid Turnaround Push, Report Says

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Intel has approached Apple about a potential investment, according to a Bloomberg News report on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter. The discussions, which also cover ways to work more closely together, are still in the early stages and may not result in a deal. Intel shares closed up 6% following the news.

Intel declined to comment, while Apple has not responded to requests.

The report follows Nvidia’s $5 billion investment for roughly a 4% stake in Intel, announced earlier this week. That deal included plans for the companies to co-develop PC and data center chips, though Nvidia will not use Intel’s foundry business to manufacture its chips.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has been actively pursuing partnerships as part of efforts to revive the struggling chipmaker. Once a dominant force in the semiconductor industry, Intel has fallen behind in the AI boom to rivals like Nvidia and AMD.

Recent backing has boosted investor confidence: Intel secured a $10 billion government stake engineered by the White House, a $2 billion equity investment from SoftBank last month, and Nvidia’s multi-billion-dollar deal. Since mid-August, Intel’s stock has risen more than 40%.

A potential investment from Apple would add another vote of confidence. Apple was once a major Intel customer before shifting to its own custom-designed silicon in 2020. For Apple, a deal could help diversify its reliance on Taiwan’s TSMC, its primary chip manufacturer, particularly given geopolitical tensions with China.

The move would also align with Apple’s broader U.S. strategy, with the company committing $600 billion in domestic initiatives over the next four years. Strengthening ties with Intel could bolster Apple’s relationship with the Trump administration, which has supported efforts to cement U.S. leadership in advanced technology.

The White House said it has not been directly involved in discussions between Intel and Apple, though a spokesperson emphasized: “The taxpayer has an equity stake in Intel succeeding, and the Administration supports iconic American companies like Intel doing what’s best to cement American tech dominance.”

Intel has reportedly reached out to other potential partners as well, as it works to secure outside investment and long-term clients for its manufacturing facilities.