Our vision
Because major challenges for Europe in defence, security, health, energy and climate require processing huge volumes of strategic data in a fraction of a second, SiPearl is building European high-performance energy-efficient backdoor-free & kill switch-free processors dedicated to supercomputing, AI and data centres.
In a complex geopolitical context, we are contributing to Europe’s technological sovereignty in scientific, societal and environmental fields with a reduced carbon footprint.
SiPearl in a nutshell
SiPearl is the European fabless designer of high-performance energy-efficient processors for HPC, AI and data centres. These processors will help address strategic dual-use challenges in the fields of security, defence, medical research, energy, climate and engineering with a reduced environmental footprint.
SiPearl is thus contributing to Europe’s technological sovereignty.
SiPearl, designing
European processors
Created by Philippe Notton in June 2019, SiPearl is the company bringing to life the European Processor Initiative (EPI) project. The aim of EPI is to foster the deployment in Europe of high-performance and energy-efficient processor technologies. Privately held, SiPearl is supported by the European Union and France.
SiPearl designs European processors that help Europe’s supercomputers to achieve exascale(*) power. It works to through close collaboration with its 30 partners from the EPI consortium – scientific community, supercomputing centres and leading names from the IT, electronics and automotive sectors – which are its stakeholders, clients and end-users.
(*): One billion billion calculations per second.
Timeline
Operational launch
with €7.4m European Union funding
Created in June 2019 as a European company, SiPearl moves into its operational phase with €7.4m funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under specific grant agreement no.826647.
The company launches the design of its first generation microprocessor, Rhea1.
Major licensing agreement
with ARM
Under the terms of this license agreement, SiPearl benefits from the high-performance, scalable and secure Arm Neoverse V1 platform as well as the robust software and hardware ecosystem of the global supplier of semiconductor technologies.
The Arm Neoverse V1 platform gives SiPearl the means to design the European Rhea1 processor.
SiPearl opens a R&D centre in Barcelona
SiPearl opens its second international R&D centre in the capital of Catalonia. The company thus becomes closer to its partners in Southern Europe, including the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC).
Previously Strategic Project Manager at BSC, Anna Riverola is appointed as the head of SiPearl SL.
Series-A intial closing with €90m
Investors are Arm, Atos Group, through its Eviden business, European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund (€15m) and the French State, via French Tech Souveraineté, within the framework of France 2030.
The financing includes up to €25m in convertible debt from the European Investment Bank (EIB). Of this amount, €10m was ultimately subscribed.
JUPITER, lead customer for SiPearl
SiPearl wins an emblematic contract to equip the first Exascale supercomputer in Europe. Named JUPITER, this EuroHPC JU supercomputing infrastructure is operated by Forschungszentrum Jülich.
It is built by a consortium composed of Eviden and ParTec.
Series A 2d closing with €23m
This €15m second round of financing is subscribed by the French State, via French Tech Souveraineté -as part of the Plan France 2030- and Arm.
It includes a €8m loan syndicated by Caisse d’Epargne Rhône Alpes.
SiPearl opens in Italy
To open its R&D centre in Italy, SiPearl chooses Bologna, at the heart of a leading region in supercomputing and AI, with the University of Bologna, Cineca -Italy’s largest supercomputing centre-, and ECMWF.
Matteo Tonelli, previously responsible for external relations and partnerships at ANRT, is Country Manager for Italy.
€130m Series A closing
Rhea1 tape-out
After raising a third and final tranche of €32 million from existing investors, EIC Fund and France 2030 via French Tech Souveraineté, and also a new investor, the Taiwanese private equity firm Cathay Venture, SiPearl has secured €130 million. It is the largest Series A round in the European fabless semiconductor industry.
Previously, the company completed the design of its first processor, Rhea1. It is currently manufactured by the world leader in independent foundries, TSMC, in Taiwan.
Our ecosystem
They support us
Since its operational launch in January 2020, SiPearl has been financially supported by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program. In December 2021, SiPearl was awarded the Accelerator program of the European Innovation Council (EIC) for a total of €17.5m: €2.5m grants and €15m equity subscribed by EIC Fund.
Among our technological partnerships
SiPearl has established key partnerships with leading IP providers. Our company is the only European licensee to use ARM Neoverse V1 platform andbenefits from ARM robust software ecosystem. This partnership with the global semiconductor IP provider accelerates the design of a very high-end offering in terms of both computing power and energy efficiency.
SiPearl also selected Siemens Digital Industries Software for its Veloce Strato emulation platform, Ansys for validation of semiconductor power integrity and minimization of power consumption, Synopsys for its IP.
Manufacturing is entrusted to the Taiwanese TSMC, first independant semiconductor foundry.
Our partners
in the HPC ecosystem
Sipearl has established two partnerships with two leader manufacturers: Eviden, the next-gen technology leader in data-driven, trusted and sustainable digital transformation, and HPE, the global leader
To best meet the expectations of its end-users, SiPearl collaborates with AMD for its Instinct™ accelerators and Intel for Ponte Vecchio GPU family and NVIDIA for its accelerated computing and networking portfolio.
Organizations we belong to
SiPearl is a member of many technology consortiums, such as ANRT, which gathers public and private actors in research and development, France Digitale, the leading startup and investor association, France Deeptech, the community which gathers together actors in deeptech and Teratec, the European competence center for high-performance digital simulation. SiPearl is also a member of Systematic, the European Deeptech cluster, JEDI Foundation, European funding agency, PlayFrance.digital, collective which brings together more than 300 French digital players, GIM, professional industrial organization of Ile-de-France and of Industrial Alliance on Processors and Semiconductor Technologie. The company is also a member of the ETP4HPC think tank dedicated to research and innovation in European high performance computing to further Europe’s competitiveness. It’s also a member of Minalogic, the digital technology cluster for France’s Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region or GSA, organization dedicated to semiconductors.
Our commitment to sustainable growth
By giving Europe the means for early detection of diseases, to fight climate change more effectively, to produce better quality goods and services, the high-performance, low-power microprocessors developed by SiPearl will bring important environmental, social and societal benefits.
SiPearl’s progressive approach to sustainable growth includes promoting diversity in recruitment and taking steps to minimize the impact of its activities on the environment (hosting green servers at Ikoula, opening offices close to labor pools, limiting paper consumption).
In December 2023, SiPearl launched its first carbon footprint assessment as part of Diagnostic Décarbon’Action.