Cerebras Systems, a Silicon Valley-based AI chip company, and Canadian startup Ranovus have secured a $45 million contract from the U.S. military to enhance connections between computing chips.
Cerebras aims to compete with Nvidia in the AI chip market and has filed for a patent. Unlike most competitors whose chips are slightly larger than a U.S. postage stamp, Cerebras produces chips the size of a dinner plate. The company believes its approximately foot-wide chip can surpass Nvidia's array of smaller chips.
The contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will focus on integrating Cerebras chips with networking technology from Ranovus, an Ottawa-based firm supported by the Canadian government. Ranovus utilizes light for data transmission between chips, enabling faster communication with reduced power consumption.
The challenge of directly integrating optical connections with computing chips has sparked interest among startups seeking innovative solutions. While Cerebras and Ranovus have not disclosed specific strategies, they indicated that DARPA seeks computing systems capable of simulating complex battlefields in real time.
Cerebras CEO Andrew Feldman expressed ambitious goals, stating, "We want to do something that's 150 times faster and uses three watts instead of 30." He noted that DARPA has a reputation for funding transformative projects.
Ranovus has developed demonstration chips in collaboration with Advanced Micro Devices and Taiwan's MediaTek, but emphasized that their collaboration with Cerebras will incorporate new, undisclosed technology. Ranovus CEO Hamid Arabzadeh highlighted that they plan to introduce innovative elements developed over the past year into this new project.