The Government of Canada took another step forward in its plan to bolster semiconductor and compound semiconductor manufacturing capacity in the country with a major injection of funding for Kanata North-based Ranovus Inc.
François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry announced a $36 million contribution through the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) to the local semiconductor company in support of a larger $100 million domestic production project.
“Semiconductors are part of our everyday life. They are in our phones, our cars and our appliances. 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,” said Champagne. “Canada will continue to play a leading role in the rapidly growing semiconductor industry, helping to strengthen and secure the North American supply chain.”
With this contribution, Ranovus will increase its headcount in Canada to 200 full-time employees and provide opportunities to 150 Canadian co-op students. The funding will also help accelerate the development if IP in Canada, as this project is expected to produce 40 new patents.
“The computing power for training artificial intelligence systems has grown by 300,000 times over the past 5 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. “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.”
Established in 2012 by a group of technology industry veterans, Ranovus is focused on developing a single-chip optical engine that would allow fibre optics to replace electrical circuits in high‑performance computers for data centre servers, in turn allowing for faster connection, as well as energy and cost savings.
Ranovus first received funding support from the SIF in 2018, with a $20 million influx of capital to develop and construct the next generation of data infrastructure centres. This latest contribution is part of a larger Semiconductor Challenge Callout by the government to further develop and manufacture semiconductors in Canada.