Corintis Secures $24M Funding to Address AI's Thermal Bottleneck Through Microsoft Collaboration

Corintis, a semiconductor cooling startup emerging from stealth mode, has secured $24 million in Series A funding to tackle what industry experts identify as the next major bottleneck in artificial intelligence development: thermal management. The funding round was led by BlueYard Capital with participation from Founderful, Acequia Capital, Celsius Industries, and XTX Ventures, bringing the company's total raised capital to $33.4 million.

The urgency of Corintis's mission is underscored by the exponential growth in AI computational demands. While early versions of OpenAI's ChatGPT trained on NVIDIA chips using 400W of power, current GPU and AI accelerator designs are pushing toward 10x power requirements, necessitating advanced liquid cooling solutions. NVIDIA's recent adoption of liquid cooling for its latest data center GPUs highlights the industry-wide recognition of this thermal challenge.

Corintis's technology focuses on microfluidic cooling, employing optimized micro-scale liquid cooling systems specifically designed for computer chips in data centers. The company's breakthrough collaboration with Microsoft demonstrated an in-chip microfluidic cooling system that removes heat three times more effectively than the most advanced cooling technology currently available. This advancement translates to significant performance improvements and overclocking potential at the software layer while enabling new 3-D chip architectures previously impossible due to thermal limitations.

Husam Alissa, director of systems technology in Cloud Operations and Innovation at Microsoft, emphasized the significance of the breakthrough, noting that the thermal margin achieved enables previously impossible chip architectures and performance enhancements. The technology represents a fundamental shift from treating cooling as an afterthought to integrating it as a core design feature.

Corintis's approach combines co-designed microfluidic cooling with advanced simulation software and manufacturing methods. The company's Glacierware platform automates cooling system design, while its copper microfluidic manufacturing facility produces cold plates with features as small as a human hair. The Therminator platform allows chip companies to physically emulate next-generation chips with millimeter accuracy to validate cooling solutions before production.

The company's leadership team has been strengthened by the addition of Lip-Bu Tan, Chairman of Walden International and former Intel CEO, and Geoff Lyon, former CEO and Founder of CoolIT, to its board of directors. Tan noted that cooling represents one of the biggest challenges for next-generation chips, with Corintis rapidly establishing itself as an industry leader in advanced semiconductor cooling solutions.

Founded on research conducted at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, Corintis has already manufactured over ten thousand cooling systems deployed in data centers running leading-edge AI chips. The company has achieved eight-digit cumulative revenue since incorporation and expects to scale this by more than 10x with early deployments. With 55 current employees, Corintis plans to expand to over 70 by year-end and aims for manufacturing capacity exceeding one million microfluidic cold plates annually by 2026.

David Byrd, general partner at BlueYard Capital, highlighted the strategic importance of Corintis's technology, stating that AI's insatiable demand for compute is pushing chips to unprecedented power densities, making advanced cooling essential for unlocking the next wave of performance. The company's solution not only addresses performance limitations but also helps data centers reduce water consumption, addressing ecological concerns associated with AI technology expansion.