PowerLattice is attracting investment from former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger for its energy-efficient microchips

If you pay attention to what the biggest tech companies are saying about the demand for AI, you’ll notice a common thread: They lack computing power. This means that the large language models that power today’s AI products need more data centers for training and inference, and therefore, more power. Against this backdrop, energy efficiency has suddenly become a critical priority for semiconductor manufacturers.

PowerLattice, a startup founded by veteran electrical engineers from Qualcomm, NUVIA, and Intel in 2023, claims to have developed a groundbreaking approach that reduces the power needs of computer chips by more than 50%. On Monday, the startup emerged from stealth with a $25 million funding round led by Playground Global and Celesta Capital, bringing its total funding to $31 million.

“This is the hard stuff: How do you get power to the device? There are very few teams and people who can do that,” said Pat Gelsinger, general partner at Playground Global. “We’ve put together what I think is a dream team for power delivery.”

As the former CEO of Intel, Gelsinger has significant authority in the semiconductor world, making his involvement a strong stamp of approval for PowerLattice.

In fact, when the startup’s CEO Dr. Ping Zhou and her founding team pitched their idea to the Playground offices in March, they were so blown away by Gelsinger’s popularity that they asked him for a selfie, Gelsinger told TechCrunch. The admiration proved mutual, with Gelsinger coming away really impressed with the PowerLattice technology.

The startup’s technology seems simple in concept: a small power delivery chip designed to bring power closer to the processor, greatly reducing power loss.

Two years later, PowerLattice has already achieved its first major milestone: The first batch of microchips is being produced by TSMC, in partnership with an unnamed manufacturer that is testing the startup’s functionality, Gelsinger said.

In addition to its initial customer, the startup plans to make its product available for testing by other customers in the first half of 2026. The trials should prove useful, given that PowerLattice’s pool of potential customers includes major chip manufacturers Nvidia, Broadcom, and AMD, as well as niche AI ​​chip developers, such as Cerberus and Grok, and Playground-backed startups such as d-Matrix and NextSilicon.

Although every chip company has internal teams working to improve energy efficiency, Gelsinger hopes PowerLattice’s innovative approach will pique their interest.

“They might say, ‘I’m going to talk about some volume in this approach, some volume in my more traditional approach,'” he said. “But we believe our ability to capture meaningful share will emerge quickly.”

PowerLattice isn’t the only startup trying to help chip manufacturers address the power problem. The company will compete closely with Empower Semiconductor, a startup that has achieved great success $140 million Series Dled by Fidelity Management & Research Company, in September.

However, Gelsinger is confident that the 50% increase in energy efficiency achieved by PowerLattice is an “exceptional” result, and he expects the company will soon raise a much larger funding round to fund production.

“The idea is bold, the benefits are great, and I expect others will say, ‘That’s a great idea. Let me try, too,'” Gelsinger said.