The funds could enable significant advances in semiconductor design and manufacturing.

Lace Lithography, a Microsoft-backed Norwegian chipmaking equipment start-up, has announced the raising of $40m to be used in the advancement of its unique semiconductor technologies.

The Series A funding round was led by Atomico with additional investments from Microsoft’s venture arm M12, Linse Capital, the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation and Nysnø.

Typically, to construct advanced chips, manufacturers use a process called lithography, which uses light to draw complex circuits that form the foundation ​of artificial intelligence chips. This leaves more room on components, enabling space for additional features within a limited area.

Lace Lithography’s engineers have developed a new system; rather than using light, their new form of lithography utilises a helium atom beam. The company’s CEO Bodil Holst explained to Reuters that this approach will enable chip designs that are 10 times as small as what is currently possible. 

John Petersen, scientific director of lithography at Imec, explained that the advantage of a helium atom beam is in its potential to create features, such as transistors, that are smaller to an “almost unimaginable” degree.

Holst added that Lace’s advancements could allow chipmakers to print silicon wafers at what could be considered “ultimately atomic resolution”.  

Founded in 2023 by Holst and Adrià Salvador Palau, Lace is headquartered in Bergen, Norway, with a second location in Barcelona, Spain. The platform has ⁠developed prototype ​systems and aims to have a test tool in a ​pilot chip fabrication plant by roughly 2029.

Also this month, photonics expert Peter O’Brien received the 2025 Semi European Award, given in recognition of innovators who have had a significant impact on the global semiconductor landscape. O’Brien is the head of research for photonics packaging and systems integration at University College Cork’s Tyndall National Institute.

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