German semiconductor company Ferroelectric Memory (FMC) has raised €100 million ($116m) to support the development of its memory chips.

Of the total raised, €77 million ($89m) resulted from the company’s oversubscribed Series C funding round, with an additional €23 million ($27m) secured through public funding, including the European Innovation Council (EIC).

The Series C round was led by HV Capital and the DeepTech & Climate Fonds (DTCF), along with Vsquared Ventures. Returning investors include eCAPITAL, Bosch Ventures, Air Liquide Venture Capital, M Ventures (Merck), and Verve Ventures.

In a statement, FMC said the funds would be used to support the company’s global footprint and accelerate the commercialization of its DRAM+ and 3D CHACHE+ memory chips and system solutions.

Founded in 2016, Dresden-based FMC develops non-volatile memory technology based on thin-film material hafnium oxide. The company’s approach transforms amorphous hafnium oxide (HfO2) into crystalline ferroelectric HfO2, so that CMOS transistors and capacitors can be turned into non-volatile memory cells, a ferroelectric field-effect transistor (FeFET), or a capacitor (FeCAP).

Thomas Rückes, CEO of FMC, said: “We are working on the next generation of memory chips and system solutions that are not only more sustainable and energy efficient, but also faster and less expensive than the current industry standard. While bandwidth has so far been the dominant metric of AI compute, energy efficiency is now becoming the key factor for the next generation of AI.

“Memory chips are the main bottleneck in the AI stack. FMC’s DRAM+ and 3D CACHE+ technology addresses precisely this issue: Faster and more energy efficient than established products,” he added. “This lays the foundation for scaling up AI data centers and AI Edge applications. Securing an equity financing of this magnitude emphasizes the significance of our technology, and we are grateful to have earned the trust of leading deep-tech investors for our vision.”

In other funding news

• Danish chip startup Skycore Semiconductors has raised €5 million ($5.8m) in seed funding to support the development of its power integrated circuit technology for AI data centers. The round was led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund, with participation from First Momentum, Mätch VC, and Balnord. Skycore is currently developing 800V HVDC power architectures for future AI facilities and preparing its first commercial products for deployment in AI data centers.
• Semiconductor design company Openchip has announced the next stage of its strategic collaboration with NEC Corporation, under which the partners aim to co-develop a next-generation Vector Processing Unit (VPU). The two companies are now working to define the architecture of the accelerator cards and exploring early deployment opportunities with select customers.