Chip cooling startup Corintis raises $24 million, adds Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to board

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By Aditya Soni and Stephen Nellis

SAN FRANCISCO -Corintis, a Swiss startup promising more rapid liquid chip-cooling technology, has raised $24 million and added Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to its board as artificial intelligence fuels demand for better heat management tools for semiconductors.

Tests by Microsoft, a Corintis customer, have shown the Lausanne-based startup’s system, which runs liquid through tiny channels etched on the chips to draw off heat, is up to three times more efficient than standard methods.

Corintis was valued at around $400 million after the Series A funding round, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.

Demand is rising for new cooling methods as AI chips made by companies such as Nvidia consume unprecedented amounts of power, straining traditional systems that rely on pumping cold air through data centers. The heat results in slower chips and adds pressure on already stressed power grids. 

While most liquid cooling only pulls heat from the chip’s surface and leaves hot spots, Corintis says its technology channels liquid inside the chip itself to cool more efficiently and reduce power and water use.

The company uses software to automate the design of cooling systems and manufactures its cold plates – metal blocks that sit on top of chips and transfer heat into circulating liquid – in Europe. The tech can be used as a drop-in upgrade for existing liquid cooling systems or be built directly into chips.

“Right now we are able to produce around 100,000 cold plates per year. Next year we are ramping up to around 1 million cold plates per year,” co-founder and CEO Remco van Erp told Reuters.

Remco founded the startup, spun off from Lausanne’s Federal Institute of Technology, in 2022 with two others, including Chief Operating Officer Sam Harrison.

The company’s Series A funding round was led by venture capital firm BlueYard Capital and joined by Founderful, Acequia Capital, Celsius Industries and XTX Ventures, among others. It took the total funds raised so far to $33.4 million, including a pre-seed round. 

Corintis said Tan, also the chairman of venture capital firm Walden International, became a board member before his appointment as Intel CEO in March. Geoff Lyon, founder and former CEO of liquid-cooling firm CoolIT, also joined the board, it added.

Corintis will use the new funds to expand its team to 70 by year-end from 55 currently, scale up manufacturing and open offices in the U.S., where many of its customers are based.

(Reporting by Aditya Soni and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Kate Mayberry)