Snowcap Raises $23 mn to Build Superconducting AI Chips

Snowcap Compute Inc., a Palo Alto-based startup aiming to revolutionise chip design using superconducting materials, has raised $23 million in seed funding led by Playground Global, with Vsquared Ventures also participating.

Snowcap plans to develop processors that use niobium titanium nitride, a superconducting material that eliminates heat generation during computation.

This could cut data center power usage significantly, as cooling systems account for a large share of energy consumption.

CEO Michael Lafferty, a Cadence veteran, leads the team alongside former IMEC scientists Anna and Quentin Herr.

“We’re building compute systems for the edge of what’s physically possible. Superconducting logic lets us push beyond the limits of existing CMOS technology, achieving orders-of-magnitude gains in processing speed and efficiency. That performance is essential for the future of AI and quantum computing,” Lafferty said.

The company claims its chips will be 25x more power-efficient than today’s best processors and will target AI inference and training workloads.

Snowcap expects to deliver its first prototype chip by the end of 2026, using existing semiconductor fabs and standard 300mm wafers to keep manufacturing scalable.

The company also announced that former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has joined its board.

“Reimagining a post-CMOS world from the ground up with the most capable and experienced team in superconducting technology is exactly the kind of breakthrough that Playground was built to enable. The implications for AI, quantum and HPC are both thrilling and profound,” Pat Gelsinger, General Partner at Playground Global and Chair of the Board at Snowcap, said.