FMC raises €100M as it unveils new class of memory chips for the AI era

Semiconductor pioneer FMC has raised €100 million to set new standards in memory chips with its highly innovative technology.

The €77 million in equity comes from FMC's oversubscribed Series C financing round, which is backed by prominent existing and new investors and ranks among the largest raise of its kind in the semiconductor industry.

An additional €23 million has been sourced through public funds, including contributions from the IPCEI ME/CT program and the European Innovation Council (EIC).

Memory chips have become a strategically crucial technology that is currently being dominated exclusively by South Korea, the US, and Taiwan, with China rapidly catching up.

So far, Europe has not had a significant presence in this critical semiconductor segment. With FMC, a credible player is now emerging in Silicon Saxony with the ambition to close this strategic gap from within Europe.

Based on the thin-film material hafnium oxide, the company has created a new class of memory cells with its DRAM+ chip – more sustainable, faster, and cost-efficient. Thanks to its extremely low power consumption, the technology significantly reduces the energy demand of AI data centres, laying the foundation for their scale-up in Europe and worldwide. 

According to Thomas Rückes, CEO of FMC, the company is working on the next generation of memory chips and system solutions that are not only more sustainable and energy efficient, but also faster and less expensive than the current industry standard:

“While bandwidth has so far been the dominant metric of AI compute, energy efficiency is now becoming the key factor for the next generation of AI. “

Rückes asserts that memory chips are the main bottleneck in the AI stack. 

“FMC's DRAM+ and 3D CACHE+ technology addresses precisely this issue: Faster and more energy efficient than established products.

This lays the foundation for scaling up AI data centres and AI edge applications. Securing an equity financing of this magnitude emphasises the significance of our technology, and we are grateful to have earned the trust of leading deep-tech investors for our vision."

The equity round is led by HV Capital and the DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), along with Vsquared Ventures. Returning investors include eCAPITAL, Bosch Ventures, Air Liquide Venture Capital, M Ventures (Merck), and Verve Ventures.

Fabian Gruner, Partner at HV Capital, said:

"FMC's highly innovative memory chip technology is unique and has the potential to redefine global industry standards. We are proud to back its commercialisation through our commitment."

Even with the planned expansions of energy capacity, AI data centres are expected to consume a very large share of global energy production in the future.

FMC's innovative persistent DRAM+ and 3D-CACHE+ memory technologies and systems can significantly reduce this energy consumption by minimising and optimising the data transfers between compute hierarchies, which account for a substantial portion of energy use, thereby increasing compute efficiency. 

When FMC's technologies replace conventional memory, system efficiency for high-performance databases and processing speed for energy-efficient AI applications could improve by more than 100 per cent.

This is possible because persistent DRAM+ and 3D-CACHE+ technologies replace volatile memory, eliminating time-consuming data transfers between volatile, fast, and slower non-volatile storage.

FMC is commercialising its DRAM+ and 3D-CACHE+ designs and products in collaboration with leading DRAM memory chip companies and advanced logic foundries in high-volume 300mm production fabs worldwide for specific, energy-efficient customer applications in the near future.

FMC's technology also has disruptive potential to achieve higher memory densities than conventional memory solutions.

The fresh funding will accelerate the commercialisation of the company's DRAM+ and 3D CHACHE+ memory chips and system solutions and expand its global presence.