Transforming Semiconductor Manufacturing with AI

AI and simulation eliminates defects before chip production.

As chips grew more complex, even small design mistakes proved ruinous. Through Regis McKenna’s venture partnership with Kevin Kimberlin, Spencer Trask met Raj Raheja—who built IBM’s first U.S. fab—to fix this problem by simulating chip design and manufacturing end-to-end.

Though chip making is arguably the most complex production processes in the global economy, they formed DFMsim Inc. and Spencer Trask funded it with Tom Caulfield (now CEO of GlobalFoundries), and hired CEOAnantha Sethuraman. They assembled a team that created 300 modules in a Virtual Factory that evolved into the first AI company in semiconductor manufacturing.

To scale this throughout the industry, Setheraman integrated DFMsim into the AiX platform that he conceived at Applied Materials Inc., the firm providing equipment and engineering solutions for every advanced chip made in the world. From this leadership position, DFMsim and AiX are now enabling the integrated circuits of the future and the Age of Intelligence.