Nearfield Instruments raises a record $380M chip round
Nearfield Instruments, a Rotterdam firm that inspects chips at the atomic scale, has raised $380mn at a $1.6bn valuation. It is the largest deep-tech round in Dutch history, and sovereign funds are paying close attention.
Everyone knows the headline names of the AI chip boom. Nvidia designs the chips. TSMC makes them. ASML builds the machines that print them.
Nearfield Instruments is not a household name. It just raised the biggest deep-tech round the Netherlands has ever seen.
The Rotterdam company closed a $380mn Series D at a $1.6bn valuation, according to Reuters. Demand outstripped supply.
What Nearfield actually does
Nearfield builds the tools that check chips once they leave the production line. Specifically, it makes atomic force microscopes.
These machines measure features only a few atoms tall. They do it by dragging a fine probe across the surface, a bit like a needle moving over a vinyl record.
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