Feds, Ranovus seek to advance domestic semi production

The Government of Canada is investing $36 million through the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) to Ottawa-based Ranovus Inc., to support a $100 million project that will advance the domestic production and manufacturing of semiconductor products and services.

“Semiconductors are part of our everyday life. They are in our phones, our cars and our appliances,” said François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. “Through this investment, we are supporting Canadian innovators, helping creating good jobs and IP, and developing Canada’s semiconductor industry to build a more resilient economy. Canada will continue to play a leading role in the rapidly growing semiconductor industry, helping to strengthen and secure the North American supply chain.”

An 8-core Ranovus Odin100Gbps Optical I/O
with internal and external laser source options for high-capacity data center interconnect. Source: R

With this contribution, Ranovus will increase its workforce in Canada to 200 full-time employees and provide opportunities to 150 Canadian co-op students. This contribution is part of the Government of Canada’s intellectual property (IP) initiative. This will help accelerate Ranovus’s development of IP in Canada, as this project is expected to produce 40 new patents.

80 per cent smaller than its closest rival

“The computing power for training artificial intelligence systems has grown by 300,000 times over the past five 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,” said Hamid Arabzadeh, Chairman and CEO, Ranovus Inc.

“In 2022, Ranovus delivered ODIN, the world’s fastest, smallest and lowest power consumption AI interconnect chip. ODIN consumes 75 per cent less power, is 80 per cent smaller than its closest rival and is scaling into production in the next nine months with Tier 1 U.S. customers. 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.”