The federal government has announced a $36 million contribution through the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) to Ottawa-based Ranovus Inc. to support a $100 million project to advance the domestic production and manufacturing of semiconductor products and services.
This project aims to develop the highest performing and most power-efficient technologies for interconnect computer chips for next-generation artificial intelligence work. This will further leverage Canadian semiconductor and compound semiconductor manufacturing capacity and silicon photonics expertise. This will help accelerate Ranovus’s development of IP in Canada, as this project is expected to produce 40 new patents.
“Semiconductors are part of our everyday life. They are in our phones, our cars and our appliances. Through this investment, we are supporting Canadian innovators, helping create good jobs and IP, and developing Canada’s semiconductor industry to build a more resilient economy,” said François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.
The computing power for training artificial intelligence systems has grown by 300,000 times over the past 5 years, based on the recent OpenAI study. To support this unprecedented growth, thousands of computer chips must be interconnected with massive data pipes to create an artificial intelligence cluster. In 2022, Ranovus delivered ODIN, which the company claims is the world’s fastest, smallest and lowest power consumption AI interconnect chip.
“ODIN consumes 75% less power, is 80% smaller than its closest rival and is scaling into production in the next 9 months with Tier 1 U.S. customers,” said Hamid Arabzadeh, Chairman and CEO, Ranovus Inc. “We are investing $100 million to further scale our next-generation AI interconnect platform and are delighted by the continued support of the Strategic Innovation Fund to help keep Canada at the leading edge of the next generation of AI native infrastructure.”
