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Snowcap aims to outperform AI systems with superconducting

chips

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Superconducting chips face cooling challenges but promise

efficiency

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Former Intel ( INTC ) CEO joins Snowcap board

By Stephen Nellis

SAN FRANCISCO, June 23 (Reuters) - Snowcap Compute, a

startup working on building artificial intelligence computing

chips using superconducting technology, on Monday raised $23

million and said that the former CEO of Intel ( INTC ) will join its

board.

Snowcap aims to build computers that could one day beat

today's best artificial intelligence systems, while using a

fraction of the electricity. To do that, Snowcap plans to use a

new kind of chip made with superconductors, which are materials

that allow current to flow without electrical resistance.

Scientists understand superconductors well and have

theorized about making computer chips with them since at least

the 1990s, but have faced a major challenge: To work, the chips

need to be kept very cold in cryogenic coolers which themselves

consume a lot of electricity.

For decades that made superconductor chips a nonstarter,

until AI chatbots ignited huge demand for computing power at the

same time that conventional chips are hitting the limits of how

much performance they can wring from every watt of power and are

taxing electricity grids.

Nvidia's ( NVDA ) forthcoming "Rubin Ultra" AI data center server due

in 2027, for example, is expected to consume about 600 kilowatts

of power. That means operating that single server at full

capacity for one hour would consume about two thirds the average

power that a U.S. house uses in a month.

In that kind of changed world, dedicating a portion of a

data center's power needs to cryogenic coolers makes sense if

the performance gains are good enough, said Michael Lafferty,

Snowcap's CEO, who formerly oversaw work on futuristic chips at

Cadence Design Systems ( CDNS ). Snowcap believes that even

after accounting for energy used in cooling, its chips will be

about 25 times better than today's best chips in terms of

performance per watt.

"Power (efficiency) is nice, but performance sells,"

Lafferty said. "So we're pushing the performance level way up

and pulling the power down at the same time."

Snowcap's founding team includes two scientists - Anna Herr

and Quentin Herr - who have done extensive work on

superconducting chips at chip industry research firm Imed and

defense firm Northrop Grumman ( NOC ), as well as former chip

executives from Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Alphabet's Google.

While the chips can be made in a standard factory, they will

require an exotic metal called niobium titanium nitride that

Lafferty said depends on Brazil and Canada for key ingredients.

Snowcap plans its first basic chip by the end of 2026, but full

systems will not come until later.

Despite the long development timeline, Pat Gelsinger,

Intel's ( INTC ) former CEO who led the investment for venture

firm Playground Global and is joining Snowcap's board, said the

computing industry needs a sharp break from its current

trajectory of consuming ever more electricity.

"A lot of data centers today are just being limited by power

availability," Gelsinger said.

Also joining the funding round were Cambium Capital and

Vsquared Ventures.