The SEMI Startups for Sustainable Semiconductors (S3) program, now in its 4th year of inviting startups to apply, is pleased to announce the 35 startups chosen to move to the semi-finalist virtual pitch event happening July 31 and August 1. From this pool, 10-12 finalists will be chosen and invited to pitch to a live audience at SEMICON West 2025 in Phoenix, AZ, October 7-9, 2025. The committee, made up of experienced Corporate Venture Capitalists (CVCs) from the global semiconductor industry, received impressive submissions in all three categories identified for 2025:
- Sustainable Semiconductor Manufacturing
- Sustainable Data Center
- Gen AI for Sustainable Design
Led by Applied Materials this year, the program’s strongest feature is the exposure to the CVCs, as well as the personal mentoring each semi-finalist receives. The mentoring topics are tailor made to align with the greatest need of the startup and can range from basic introduction to semiconductor manufacturing, to connecting them to funding sources. A full analysis of the program kicked off this year’s efforts.
The program saw a 100% increase in applications to 145 this year and thus the pool of semifinalists expanded from 30 to 35. While geographically diverse, the semi-finalists all share their solutions for the building and use of more sustainable electronics.
Are you an investor and would like to receive notice of the virtual and live pitch events around S3? Register your interest here.
2025 S3 Semifinalists
| 3D Architech, Inc. Boston, MA, USA | 3D Architech develops and commercializes advanced cooling devices for AI chips using a proprietary gel-based metal 3D printing technology. Unlike conventional methods limited to 100-micron structures, our technology enables highly complex microstructures at 10-micron precision, achieving up to 60% improvement in cooling efficiency. |
| Actasys Inc. Brooklyn, NY, USA | Actasys has developed a precision cooling solution designed for thermal bottlenecks in semiconductor-driven systems such as networking cards (NICs), DPUs, switches, and optical transceivers. Instead of cooling entire racks or server rooms ActaJet™ targets localized hotspots at the device level, delivering scalable, high-efficiency airflow through a compact, adaptive, and electronically controlled actuator system. |
| AlixLabs AB Lund, Sweden | AlixLabs AB is developing a disruptive semiconductor manufacturing technology based on Atomic Layer Pitch Splitting (APS). It enables cost-effective and environmentally sustainable scaling of transistor architectures by doubling pattern density without requiring advanced lithography. The core product includes both the APS process and customized etching equipment that integrates into existing semiconductor fab workflows, reducing complexity, cost, and environmental impact. |
| Allonnia Boston, MA, USA | Allonnia™ Surface Active Foam Fractionation (SAFF) unit is a turnkey PFAS remediation system engineered for on-site deployment. The system employs foam fractionation to physically separate PFAS from contaminated water streams, including both long- and short-chain compounds. SAFF arrives in a standard container and requires only electrical power, influent, and effluent hookups, and is telemetry-enabled for remote monitoring and control. |
| Alloy Enterprises Burlington, VT, USA | Alloy Enterprises develops and manufactures cold plates, manifolds, and integrated thermal solutions for liquid cooling GPUs, CPUs, and other high-performance components in data centers and semiconductor equipment. Alloy utilizes a patented Stack Forging® process to enable direct-to-chip cooling to improve thermal performance and reduce pressure drop by up to 40 times, enabling data centers to run 44°C water and reduce pumping power. |
| Alsemy Seoul, South Korea | Alsemy is building an AI-powered platform that bridges Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and EDA domains enabling fabless engineers to reflect manufacturing data characteristics in their chip designs, while process engineers can make data-driven decisions to optimize manufacturing processes for maximum chip performance. By connecting these traditionally siloed areas, a feedback loop is created to drive efficiency and innovation across the semiconductor value chain. |
| Arieca Inc Pittsburgh, PA, USA | Arieca's adaptable Liquid Metal Embedded Elastomer (LMEE) technology, which blends liquid metal and polymer, delivers both thermal performance and mechanical reliability. LMEEs are a cost-effective, dispensable emulsion that is compatible with existing high volume manufacturing tools and allows for low pressure spreading and excellent wetting. |
| Atomos 3D West Lafayette, IN, USA | Atomos 3D offers low temperature transistor technology for monolithic 3D chip integration |
| Coflux Purification, Inc Houston, TX, USA | Coflux Purification is developing a modular, point-of-use reactor system that both captures and destroys PFAS in semiconductor wastewater using our patent-pending Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs). These materials serve as photocatalytic adsorbents, combining high surface area, tunable porosity, and chemical stability to enable efficient PFAS adsorption and UV-driven degradation within a compact, modular system ensuring smooth operational deployment. |
| CoolSem Technologies Eindhoven, The Netherlands | CoolSem is developing a breakthrough thermal management technology for semiconductor devices. The Wafer Level Thermal Interface Stack (WLTIS) enables 1) up to 15x better thermal management; 2) 25-55°C lower chip temperatures; 3) 2-4° increase in device performance, reliability, and lifespan; and 4) up to 30-50% reduction in cooling energy needs. CoolSem help handle the exploding demand for AI training and inference without proportional increases in power usage or carbon footprint. |
| CuspAI Cambridge, UK | CuspAI is building an engine that combines Gen AI models, virtual twins, and active learning pipelines for simulation to develop sustainable materials solutions that address critical environmental challenges, including, environmentally-friendly etching reagents, specialized sorbents for emissions capture, and novel catalysts for manufacturing waste remediation. The engine has already proven successful in designing metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for carbon capture and PFAS removal from water. |
| Flexiramics Enshede, The Netherlands | Flexiramics® is a flexible, 100% ceramic fiber material engineered as a drop-in replacement for PCB substrates. It dramatically improves heat dissipation and signal integrity in high-performance electronics, enabling faster, cooler, and more reliable semiconductor systems. |
| Fluorityx Watertown, MA, USA | Fluorityx is commercializing a portable low-cost polymer sensor for PFAS. This fast and efficient system will be able to measure low concentrations of PFAS and replace expensive equipment and does not require highly trained staff to operate and maintain the equipment. |
| Forever Analytical South Bend, IN, USA | Forever Analytical is developing a field-deployable sensor capable of providing real-time total fluorine (TF) mass-balance information. The company is also developing a mass-spectroscopy based solution that can be coupled with the sensor to provide information on the specific PFAS molecules present in the waste stream and can be adapted to measure other contamination of interest, such as heavy metals, lead, and copper. |
| Gallox Semiconductors Inc. Ithaca, NY, USA | Gallox Semiconductors is dedicated to commercializing beta-gallium oxide (Ga2O3)-based transistors and diodes. Our patented device topologies take advantage of Ga2O3's large bandgap (~4.8 eV), which enables lower conduction losses and higher voltage handling compared to SiC. Higher voltage operation means greater power densities and system-level efficiency, effectively generating less waste heat and reducing both energy loss and cooling burdens. |
| IC Recovery, a Division of Greene Lyon Group, Inc. Beverly, MA, USA | IC Recovery's multi-patented CHIP-RENEW® technology uses a proprietary process to apply a unique thermal fluid to the surface of PCBs until the solder alloy attaching chips and other components to the board substrate reaches temperature liquidus. At that point, we can selectively recover functionally valuable chips for renewal and reuse, and/or harvest all other chips and components on the board in order to concentrate their content for subsequent, sustainable refining. |
| icspi Kitchener, ON, Canada | Icspi has created a complete atomic force microscope (AFM) scan head on a 1 mm x 1 mm chip - 1 million times smaller than traditional AFMs and the future of nanoscale semiconductor metrology and inspection powered by arrays of thousands of micro-AFM devices. The technology boosts wafer coverage and speeds time-to-yield and reduces scrap. |
| Kelvin Cooling Inc. Berkeley, CA, USA | Kelvin Cooling introduces high-efficiency nano-film evaporation cooling technology - enhancing thermal management by increasing heat transfer efficiency while reducing power consumption. This thin-film evaporation system enables direct-to-chip cooling, in a compact, scalable, and energy-efficient platform. |
| Linque Munich, Germany | Linque provides an integrated photonic switch (IPS) enabling AI-capable network nodes with reconfigurable all-optical routing for high data-rate channels with ultra-low latencies suitable for scale-out and scale-up layers of data center networks. |
| Makr Microsystems Bangalore, India | Makr Microsystems has developed a novel approach to AcousticAtomic Force Microscope (AFM) that uses common AFM instrumentation and simplifies interpretation, with a modified probe geometry that enables both acoustic transduction and sensing. We have demonstrated nanometer scale imaging from samples with shallow and deep subsurface structures. |
| Matnex London, UK | Matnex platform uses AI to rapidly scan the periodic table, allows input of objectives (functional electronic, optical, or mechanical properties) and constraints (element exclusions, intrinsic price, emission limits, etc.), and then searches a proprietary database to identify suitable stable candidates and their production methods. This provides fit-for-purpose materials that reduce environmental impact, improve the bottom line, and open new markets with technological breakthroughs. |
| Mixx Technologies, Inc. San Jose, CA, USA | Mixx Technologies is a deep-tech startup building next-generation optical interconnect solutions to deliver non-blocking, energy-efficient data movement. The advanced 3DS platform enables petabit level end-to-end connectivity for AI workloads resulting in sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective scaling. The 3DS platform comprised of the engine, package and system, enables seamless deployment of the optical IO chiplet. |
| Nano Performance Technologies Ltd. Coquitlam, BC, Canada | Nano Performance Technologies (NPT) is developing next-generation nanomaterials, specifically, Tellurene and Bismuthene (2D materials) and ultra-pure gold nanoparticle, for use in semiconductors, quantum computing, and advanced biosensing. The innovation is the scalable production and commercialization of these materials. The platform combines IP from Purdue University with in-house lab capabilities, enabling a supply of application-ready nanomaterials to R&D and manufacturing partners. |
| NextGO Epi Berlin, Germany | NextGo Epi delivers high-quality and large-scale Gallium Oxide epiwafer for high-voltage (up to 10kV-level) applications that are durable in high-temperature operations and environments with high radiation levels. |
| Nextoar Bangalore, India | Nextoar is a deeptech AI startup, focused on using AI to train the frontline fab technicians, equipment engineers, maintenance engineers, test engineers, service engineers, etc., and others closest to the action. The system will make them part of the innovation engine by, augmenting frontline workers, amplifying their business impact and creating continuously innovating organizations. |
| PhysicsX New York, NY, USA | The PhysicsX platform is an AI-driven simulation software stack designed to speed up traditional numerical simulations, optimizes components within defined constraints, and generate innovative geometries using generative Large Geometry Models (LGMs). The technology seamlessly integrates into enterprise engineering workflows, driving tangible improvements in product design, manufacturing, and operations and has several successful implementations in the electronics ecosystem. |
| Point2 Technology San Jose, CA, USA | Point2 designs and manufactures mixed-signal interconnect SoCs for terabit data transmission, to overcome the barriers of copper and optical cabling to accelerate AI interconnect in GPU cluster scale-up. e-Tube technology uses an RF Transmitter SoC to convert data from the electrical to the RF domain for transmission over plastic waveguides, with the RF Receiver SoC converting the data from the RF domain back to the electrical domain. |
| PROUD Lausanne, Switzerland | PROUD's patented diamond-layer technology with the highest heat dissipation capacity (> 1000 W/m.K) of any existing material, deposited on chips, allows a direct upgrade in heat extraction, power output and efficiency. |
| Scrona AG Zurich, Austria | Scrona has developed a scalable multi-nozzle electrohydrodynamic (EHD) inkjet printhead for additive microfabrication in semiconductor and electronics manufacturing. This MEMS-based 128-nozzle printhead enables sub-10 nm resolution, ultra-low material use, and wide material compatibility, including metals, dielectrics, and polymers. It replaces wasteful lithography and etching with direct-write precision printing, significantly reducing energy, water, and chemical consumption in an automation-ready format. |
| SKYRE, Inc. East Hartford, MA, USA | SKYRE develops and manufactures products for on-site purification and pressurization of process hydrogen and makes it available for reuse at the fab facility. The hardware is highly reliable with low maintenance costs with equal or better quality and lower cost than merchant hydrogen or onsite hydrogen generation. |
| Syenta Sydney, Australia | Syenta has developed LEM - Localized Electrochemical Modelling - a process for depositing metal patterns using a local electrochemical process. The pattern is created on a stamp, which then prints the pattern on the substrate in an additive process. |
| Terecircuits Corporation Mountain View, CA, USA | Terecircuits develops advanced material solutions for heterogeneous assembly of small, fragile, and thinned components, Chiplets, sensors, power devices, and passives. The process is ideal for achieving scale with reduced waste; while meeting critical assembly challenges such as 3D assembly, silicon carbide die attach, flexible circuits, and optics. |
| Vertical Horizons Cambridge, MA, USA | Vertical Horizons is a fabless semiconductor company commercializing vertical gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors to revolutionize energy efficiency. Vertical GaN reduces energy losses by up to 30% and doubles power density, enabling a 50% reduction in system footprint. This innovation tackles the urgent need for a new generation of power infrastructure designed to scale AI, and high-density and high-power applications. |
| Vionano Innovations Inc St. Paul, MN, USA | VioNano Innovations is building a patterning platform to enable advanced feature scaling using self-assembling polymer brush materials. The system enables polymers over 193 nm DUV lithography patterns to double feature density without requiring ALD/CVD or etch steps. The result is a low-energy, high-resolution process for sub-20 nm features using existing infrastructure. |
| XLYNX Materials Victoria, BC, Canada | XLYNX designs and manufactures a revolutionary family of polymer crosslinkers. These reagents are uniquely able to cure virtually ANY aliphatic polymer, by harnessing high-yielding insertions to carbon-hydrogen bonds. Curing can be triggered thermally (at temperatures as low as 80°C) or photochemically (using either UV or blue light). |
Heidi Hoffman is Senior Director, Marketing Sustainability at SEMI.
