Mixxtech’s Plans For India’s Nascent Semiconductor Space | In Conversation With Cofounder Vivek Raghuraman | NDTV Profit - video Dailymotion

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00:00Hello and welcome to NTG Profit.

00:01Joining us today is Mr. Vivek Raghuraman.

00:03He's the co-founder of Mixtec, a US-based startup

00:06involved in the AI and HPC sectors.

00:09He's in India at the DAM Capital Investor Summit,

00:13Investor Meet, with a new AI chip, so to speak.

00:19Mr. Raghuraman, welcome to NTG Profit.

00:21Thank you.

00:22So first of all, we went to your website

00:24to check what you do.

00:26So your website says siliconization in progress.

00:29So let's start the conversation there.

00:32Sure.

00:33So what we as a company are focused on

00:37is improving the interconnects between the server

00:42chips, the high-performance computing chips,

00:44and the new GPUs or the AI accelerator

00:47chips that are being designed.

00:49So today, as you are all aware, most of the development

00:53or the largest GPUs that are being made

00:56are by companies like NVIDIA.

00:58And then eventually, these need to be scaled

01:02to big-size data centers.

01:05Right now, they are very small clusters.

01:07But then as you start scaling them,

01:09you run into significant power issues

01:11in terms of the network power consumption.

01:15So we are trying to address that space

01:17by using a technology called silicon photonics.

01:21Now, this technology has, so optic fibers

01:24have always existed in data centers.

01:27But the density requirements of these GPUs

01:31to communicate with each other, the latency requirements,

01:34are all driving for a paradigm shift

01:37in terms of implementing these new silicon photonics-based

01:41chips that can be integrated with the GPUs.

01:45So the newness in this is basically

01:48today's GPUs are interconnected to each other,

01:51predominantly using electrical links.

01:54These are high-speed electrical links

01:57where the data goes between the GPUs or GPU to memory,

02:01and the communication happens for whatever

02:03the large-language models or the generative AIs

02:05are being developed.

02:07You have something actually on the table

02:09that in front of us, there's actually a chip

02:11that you have brought us.

02:12Just talk to us about this particular chip.

02:14So, yes, so you talked about siliconization,

02:17about what we are going to be doing.

02:19So this is a prototype of the siliconization

02:21that we are looking at, wherein what you see

02:24is a very large-body GPU ASIC

02:28that is constructed using the most advanced

02:31packaging technologies, 2.5D, 3D integration

02:35packaging technologies, and the silicon photonics

02:38integrated with that packaging.

02:40And this is going to be sort of the future

02:43of how the GPUs are going to be designed

02:46and how the GPUs are going to communicate with each other.

02:49So this is a photon-based transmission

02:51rather than electron-based?

02:52That's correct, that's correct.

02:54So this uses photons, which are directly converted

02:59at the package and then transmitted out.

03:02In that sense, of course, they're going to consume

03:04less power because that's the biggest concern

03:06about AI chips, AI supercomputers,

03:09their power consumption.

03:10So how much does this particular chip reduce

03:13or address that concern?

03:15So the major power that is consumed in the AI chip

03:20is actually the core silicon,

03:23but the other aspects of it,

03:25this is basically the networking, the memory,

03:27these are other aspects that consume power.

03:30And then there is an aspect of density.

03:32So with this solution, it provides two benefits.

03:36One is the density, and the other is the reach.

03:40And combined, it saves about 30% of the power

03:44for coming out of a GPU ASIC,

03:46compared to the technologies that are available today.

03:49All right, very interesting, sir.

03:51Let's talk about semiconductor manufacturing in India

03:53and your plans also to scale up this particular chip.

03:56Does India feature in those plans?

03:59What are your plans for India in that sense?

04:01Sure, I've been very passionate about developing

04:05technologies out of India.

04:06And even through my last 15, 20 years,

04:09we've actually developed some of these

04:11state-of-the-art niche technologies out of Bangalore.

04:14And we continue to plan and expand on that.

04:19And we will have offices out of Bangalore

04:22that will be focused on the complete vertical integration,

04:25everything from silicon, to the packaging, to the systems.

04:29And this is where the next piece comes in,

04:32which is basically the manufacturing

04:34that's being looked at for semiconductors in India, right?

04:38So now we have an opportunity where the design

04:40is very close to manufacturing,

04:42and we'll be able to enable very short time to market

04:47for the manufacturing of these products,

04:49because design and manufacture are going to be hand-in-hand.

04:52So is it going to be an OSAT project for you,

04:54or are you looking at even a foundry, maybe?

04:56So I would love to have a foundry,

05:00but I don't think it is there yet.

05:03And us being startups, we are time-bound

05:07to develop the technology and productize it.

05:10So for the foundry piece of it,

05:12we are going to exist on the existing supply chain.

05:16And with the goal that eventually

05:18there will be technologies

05:19that can be manufactured in India.

05:22And likewise with the advanced packaging,

05:26that we will look at both what is available today,

05:30versus what is being developed and manufactured in India.

05:33And I think I'm very confident

05:36about the systems piece of it,

05:38which is where the existing players

05:39like Kane, Semicon, come in,

05:41who have phenomenal facilities

05:44that can take these advanced ASICs

05:46and manufacture them into products.

05:50Finally, how are you funding this?

05:52Are you looking at funding rounds

05:54to fund your manufacturing processes?

05:57So yes, both the design and the manufacturing.

06:01So we have a set of strategic investors

06:05who have come in,

06:06and who are supporting us through this endeavor.

06:09And we are in the midst of our Series A,

06:12which is expected to close in the next couple of months.

06:15But as you all know,

06:16semiconductor startups are not like software.

06:20And it does require patience.

06:22It does require a lot of investment.

06:25So it's going to be a long-term effort,

06:28where we'll be developing this technology

06:30over multiple product generations.

06:33Finally, how novel is this idea?

06:35How many other people are involved in this particular space?

06:39So I'd like to break it into three pieces.

06:43One is the core silicon photonics technology,

06:47which is basically the science of transmitting optics,

06:51or photons, through the silicon.

06:54That has been existing for maybe 20, 30 years now.

06:58But the implementation of this solution into a product,

07:02the first commercialization happened through Intel,

07:05back in 2017,

07:06where Intel was the first volume supplier

07:10of this technology.

07:11And then, most recently, Broadcom developed this technology

07:17and brought into market

07:18the world's first co-packaged optics.

07:20So these two companies have been very successful,

07:22while there are other players, like Cisco,

07:24who've been doing this technology for the data center,

07:29for the U.S. data centers, as well.

07:31And in this new niche space, targeting the AI,

07:35there are quite a few startups,

07:37as well as the large corporations

07:39who are looking at this technology,

07:41and who, right now, it is becoming inevitable.

07:45So that's why there's a lot of investment

07:47that is going in this area.

07:49And we saw the benefits of that at companies like Broadcom,

07:55and now we are kind of expanding on that.

07:57All right, thank you so much, Vivek, for speaking with us.

08:00Thank you viewers for tuning in.

08:01This is Tushar for NTV Profits.

08:05Thank you.

Mixxtech’s Plans For India’s Nascent Semiconductor Space | In Conversation With Cofounder Vivek Raghuraman | NDTV Profit

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