Ardian raises €1 billion for semiconductor investments spanning chipmaking and test
Illustrative semiconductor probe station. Rgarrigan / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ardian has raised €1 billion for a semiconductor investment platform that has already backed four businesses, including suppliers of wafer processing equipment and chip test interfaces. The total combines approximately €700 million in fund commitments with co-investments. The strategy is focused on Europe, with scope to invest in North America and Asia.
Two of the existing investments illustrate how different the markets can be within semiconductor manufacturing. Germany’s centrotherm supplies equipment for thermal processes, including systems used in silicon carbide power device production. France’s Synergie CAD develops test interfaces, the hardware that provides the electrical connection between a device under test and the equipment making the measurements.
The other two investments are in France’s Ion Beam Services, which specialises in equipment and services for implanting ions into wafers, and VSORA, a fabless designer developing AI inference accelerators for data centres. Ardian is working with semiconductor investment specialist Silian Partners and has a research partnership with CEA-Leti. The four investments predate the fundraising announcement, which did not specify any additional factory capacity.
Sources: Ardian fundraising announcement.
