Nearfield Instruments raises $380M to accelerate AI chipmaking
Nearfield Instruments B.V., which specializes in producing advanced chip manufacturing equipment, revealed today it has gotten a massive $380 million capital injection.
The Dutch company’s Series D round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and saw participation from a host of well-known global investors, including Walden Catalyst Ventures, Temasek, Innovation Industries, M&G and Invest-NL. The Qatar Investment Authority joined the round as a new investor, while existing backers TNO Ventures and ING also participated.
The Rotterdam-based company said the round is the largest ever raised by any Dutch company, and brings its valuation to $1.6 billion, cementing its unicorn status.
Nearfield is trying to solve one of the most important, yet often overlooked challenges posed by the artificial intelligence boom: the difficulty of manufacturing the silicon processors that provide the brains of AI models. As new frontier models scale up in size and complexity, semiconductor manufacturers are being asked to deliver exponential gains in compute performance, while also reducing the energy consumption of these more advanced chips so they can process data faster without an exponential leap in cost.
