Nanotronics CFO explains using AI to produce more chips for AI: ‘We’re able to do everything from R&D to production’

Good morning. When I first met Alice Globus, Nanotronics' CFO, about a year ago, we mostly discussed how her background in astrophysics led her to finance. But our most recent conversation featured another topic: creating energy-efficient compound semiconductors.

Brooklyn-based Nanotronics uses AI, robotics, and advanced imaging to reduce waste and automate manufacturing processes. The company, backed by Peter Thiel, has Fortune 500 customers working on projects in genomics, medicine, electric vehicles, and aerospace.

I talked with Globus about the company’s focus on Cubefabs, its AI-enabled chip factory. These "highly compact" facilities can be built in most climates and geographies around the world, and are increasingly viable alternatives to traditional megafactories, according to Nanotronics.

Most of the facility can be preassembled and put in containers to be shipped globally. They are assembled by installing a single-service cube in the center, where offices would be, and attaching up to four surrounding nanofactories, with each housing two clean rooms for the production of semiconductors. A single Cubefab installation could be built in about a year and start with a one-acre facility, according to the company. The design of a Cubefab looks like a clover. Depending on size, the price range is about $20 million to $100 million.

Nanotronics is in the process of site selection to build a Cubefab prototype, Globus said. "We're talking with several municipalities to decide that," she said.

A focus on energy efficiency

Cubefabs would produce compound semiconductors that are used in data centers—different from the AI chips OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman wants to raise up to $7 trillion to create, Fortune reported. Essentially, those chips would be a solution to the scarcity of AI chips created to train large language models.

“A lot of people don't realize that there are different types of chips,” Globus explained. Nanotronics' chips would enhance "power switches," a name that refers to "where power is being routed through the data center and controls how things are being optimized within the facility," she said. If these switches in the factory are more energy efficient, that could lead to a reduction of heat produced by these facilities.

Cubefabs produce chips using gallium oxide, a material five times more efficient and versatile than silicon, with lower production and resource requirements, according to Globus.

“The world is getting hungrier for AI and therefore increasing the power consumption, which is also going to increase the cost of using AI in general,” Globus said. “In terms of a growth opportunity for Nanotronics, we're really helping our customers to become more energy efficient, to increase their yields, to reduce their power consumption, and ultimately reduce their costs.”

Globus doesn't feel Nanotronics is competing with other semiconductor companies, she said. “First of all, we're not chip designers,” she explained. “We're licensing the chip design from others. We’re helping traditional semiconductor customers build fabs [or production facilities] as well. We're able to do everything from R&D to production.”

From a CFO's perspective, why does Globus think Cubefabs presents a good opportunity for Nanotronics? “The world is becoming more conscious of how they can find efficiencies within their own businesses, and they're looking to AI to do that,” she said. And after so many big companies did due diligence in 2023 on how to use AI—many worked with top consulting firms—now “2024 is going to be a year of executing on those plans.”

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com