TDK Ventures has invested in C2i Semiconductors as a part of the semiconductor startup’s $16.7 million Collection A funding spherical, as demand grows for extra environment friendly energy methods to help AI infrastructure.

The spherical additionally included participation from Peak XV Companions and different semiconductor business investors.

Based in 2024 by Ram Anant, Vikram Gakhar, Preetam Tadeparthy, Dattatreya Suryanarayana, Harsha S B and Muthusubramanian N V, C2i Semiconductors develops power-management expertise for AI information centres and high-performance computing methods.

The startup will use the contemporary capital to develop operations and speed up product improvement. 

As AI methods develop into extra power-intensive, information centres are going through rising vitality calls for. The Worldwide Power Company tasks international electrical energy consumption from information centres might attain round 945 terawatt-hours by 2030. Different business estimates counsel AI-related infrastructure spending might method or exceed $1 trillion across the finish of the last decade.

Trendy AI chips are additionally turning into considerably extra energy hungry. TDK mentioned NVIDIA’s H100 SXM accelerator, launched in 2022, is rated at as much as 700W, whereas future processors resembling Feynman, anticipated in 2028, are projected by TDK to demand as a lot as 4,500W.

C2i mentioned its expertise is designed to handle inefficiencies in energy supply between vitality sources and processors, an issue typically described within the business because the “last-inch” energy problem.

“The transition to AI-scale compute is likely one of the most important infrastructure build-outs of our technology, and it requires innovation on the very layer that delivers energy to the silicon,” mentioned Nicolas Sauvage, president of TDK Ventures.

“By making the facility conversion extra environment friendly, C2i is fixing one of the vital essential thermal and effectivity constraints of the AI period,” Nicolas mentioned.

The startup’s platform features a software-defined voltage regulator system often called the Manas Controller, alongside a sensible energy stage referred to as Sarayu. C2i mentioned its expertise is projected to ship greater than 96% energy conversion effectivity, in contrast with round 94% in incumbent methods.

“Our imaginative and prescient is to make vitality move extra dependable, denser, and extra environment friendly from the grid all the way in which to the processor core,” mentioned Ram Anant, co-founder and CEO of C2i Semiconductors.

“Partnering with TDK Ventures offers us with deep insights into superior passives and entry to a worldwide ecosystem that can speed up our path to mass manufacturing,” he mentioned.

C2i lately introduced the tape-out of a sensible energy stage chip designed for AI infrastructure. The chip was developed end-to-end in India by the corporate’s in-house semiconductor engineering staff.

TDK Ventures, established in 2019 as a completely owned subsidiary of Japan-based TDK Company, invests in startups targeted on supplies science, vitality, energy and superior industrial applied sciences.