Flex backs Axiom, DayOne files for Nasdaq IPO, and Hammerhead partners with Columbia - Silicon Brief #91

October 12, 2026 - Silicon Brief
Hi there,

This edition covers new investment, chip development and infrastructure plans across the AI hardware market. GlobalFoundries is expanding work on its FDX Fusion platform in Dresden, while Applied Optoelectronics and Flex have secured major funding to support optical manufacturing and cloud power infrastructure.

Also covered are new systems for local and edge AI, including MINISFORUM's MS-S1 MAX-P495 workstation and Xsight Labs' E1L DPU, alongside developments in liquid cooling, 800VDC power, data center construction and the growing demand for high capacity cabling.
Architect Digital launches US AI data center tracker
Architect Digital launches a free platform that lets US residents search proposed AI data centers by ZIP code and follow local sentiment and officials' positions. It covers more than 1,100 proposed projects across all 50 states. Read more
AcBel Polytech to showcase AI data center power shelves at OCP Summit 2026
AcBel Polytech will present 100kW and 72kW power shelf systems for AI data centers at OCP Global Summit 2026 in San Jose, California. The company and its subsidiary OmniOn Power will demonstrate support for 400V, 800V and 50V DC power architectures. Read more
GlobalFoundries develops FDX Fusion platform for Physical AI in Dresden
GlobalFoundries plans to develop and manufacture its FDX Fusion chip platform for energy efficient Physical AI applications at its Dresden site. The company expects its €1.1 billion SPRINT expansion to lift annual capacity above one million 300mm wafers by the end of 2028. Read more
Vision Group debuts LiLic Sidecar for AI data center backup power
Vision Group introduced its LiLic Sidecar high voltage DC backup power system at YOTTA 2026 in Las Vegas. The company also displayed battery backup, high voltage DC, and energy storage systems designed for AI data centers. Read more
Hyperscale Data to update investors on Michigan AI data centre expansion
Hyperscale Data will hold a virtual investor day on November 12 to discuss its Michigan AI data centre campus. The company will provide updates on an initial 20MW AI compute capacity agreement, with options that could expand capacity to 52MW and generate more than $3 billion over 20 years. Read more
Applied Optoelectronics completes $600 million equity offering
Applied Optoelectronics completed an equity offering that raised about $588 million after fees through the sale of 5.7 million shares. The company plans to use the proceeds to expand optical device manufacturing for data centres, buy equipment and fund research and development. Read more
SONiC Foundation adds Lenovo, NADDOD and NEXAI as General Members
The SONiC Foundation, hosted by the Linux Foundation, adds Lenovo, NADDOD and NEXAI as General Members. The companies contribute expertise in AI networking, networking silicon and data center infrastructure. Read more
Flex agrees to $2 billion Axiom investment
Flex agrees to sell $2 billion in convertible preferred stock in its Axiom Cloud and Power Infrastructure segment to funds affiliated with General Catalyst, Koch Equity Development and co investors. The deal values Axiom at $37.5 billion and supports its planned acquisition of EPC Power, ahead of a proposed 2027 public separation. Read more
CollPlant raises $3.7 million for LightSolver development
CollPlant announces a private placement expected to raise about $3.7 million, primarily from existing investors. The proceeds will support LightSolver's laser based supercomputing architecture and Laser Processing Unit technology, as well as general corporate needs. Read more
Green Badger launches AI tools for LEED construction documentation
Green Badger introduces Site Signal and Water Signal, free AI tools for assessing LEED site, climate, resilience and water requirements. Its updated Baili AI assistant also identifies products in construction submittals and prepares related LEED documentation using the company's verified product database. Read more
SUSS MicroTec enters wafer cleaning with GreenTec and GT200
SUSS MicroTec enters the wafer cleaning market with its GreenTec Solutions line and GT200 system for 200 mm applications. The company says the platform reduces chemical use and avoids hazardous acids, with high volume manufacturing systems planned for 2027 and 2028. Read more
MINISFORUM opens MS-S1 MAX-P495 workstation pre-orders
MINISFORUM opens pre-orders for its MS-S1 MAX-P495 workstation after unveiling it at IFA 2026. The system uses an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 processor and supports up to 192GB of unified memory, including up to 160GB allocated to VRAM for local AI workloads. Read more
Xsight Labs introduces 25W E1L DPU for edge infrastructure
Xsight Labs introduces the E1L, an Arm based programmable DPU that supports up to 200 Gbps while using 25W to 40W of power. The company plans to begin sampling the chip, designed for edge and embedded infrastructure, in the second quarter of 2027. Read more
Scality launches AI Inference Factory for on premises AI
Scality launches AI Inference Factory, an open code software stack for running validated open weight AI models on enterprise, government and cloud provider infrastructure. It combines inference serving, model management, request controls, storage and shared KV cache, and is available as a software license or managed service. Read more
Frore Systems announces LiquidJet Diamond coldplate for AI data centres
Frore Systems introduces LiquidJet Diamond, a liquid cooling coldplate with an integrated diamond spreader for AI data centres. The company says the product can reduce GPU hotspot temperatures by up to 10°C and improve AI tokens per watt by up to 35% versus traditional skived coldplates. Read more
DayOne Data Centers files for proposed Nasdaq IPO
DayOne Data Centers, a Singapore-based operator of AI-ready data centre campuses, filed for a proposed US initial public offering. The company plans to list American Depositary Shares on Nasdaq under the ticker DODC, though the offering size and price have not been set. Read more
Hammerhead AI and Columbia University partner on AI factory power orchestration
Hammerhead AI and Columbia University will study reinforcement learning, simulation and control methods for coordinating power, cooling and compute in AI factories. The research will focus on operating within reliability, safety and operational limits. Read more
Info-Tech Research Group releases AI infrastructure blueprint
Info-Tech Research Group releases a five phase framework to help organizations match infrastructure resources with AI workload requirements. The blueprint covers compute, memory, storage, networking, and physical infrastructure, with attention to performance, scalability, costs, and operational risk. Read more
femtoAI opens developer community for AI silicon platform
femtoAI opens public access to a developer community that includes an SPU chip evaluation kit, compressed models, a compiler and Sparsity Studio tools. The company reports its platform can reduce power use and memory requirements by up to 10 times. Read more
d-Matrix Corsair Named to Fast Company’s 2026 Tech List
d-Matrix says its Corsair AI data center platform has been included in Fast Company’s 2026 Next Big Things in Tech list, in the Foundational AI category. The company says the memory centric platform is shipping to priority customers. Read more
Zetaris launches cloud AI Data Harness for enterprise data
Zetaris launches Zetaris Cloud and its AI Data Harness, enabling AI systems to query governed enterprise data without moving it from cloud, on premises, edge, structured, unstructured and streaming sources. Steve Nouri joins as AI Strategy Advisor, and Zetaris will headline the Open Agent Hackathon 2026 from October 22 to 27. Read more
TRIMAX highlights modular power for AI data centres
TRIMAX Power Systems will present its modular power infrastructure for AI data centres at the National Investment Banking Association conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on October 6 to 7, 2026. The company provides power equipment, energy delivery and lifecycle services for critical facilities. Read more
Mordor Intelligence forecasts $90.11 billion advanced packaging market by 2031
Mordor Intelligence forecasts the global advanced packaging market will grow from $57.46 billion in 2026 to $90.11 billion by 2031. The projection cites demand for 2.5D and 3D packaging, chiplets, hybrid bonding, smaller devices and electric vehicle electronics. Read more
Works360 launches PLAiPulse for AI PC evaluations
Works360 launches PLAiPulse, a tool that displays CPU, GPU, NPU, memory and power use while customers test AI PCs with their own applications. The initial rollout supports selected Intel Core Ultra and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Series systems, plus some Microsoft Surface evaluation programmes, with wider availability planned for 2027. Read more
Logic Fruit Technologies unveils L-Nex BMC platform for AI servers
Logic Fruit Technologies introduces L-Nex, an FPGA based BMC platform for OCP DC-SCM 2.x servers. The platform combines OpenBMC, server management, telemetry, remote KVM and hardware security, with production targeted for the third quarter of 2027. Read more
Hanwha EnergyFluo joins Fast Company’s 2026 tech list
Hanwha says its EnergyFluo energy management system was selected for Fast Company’s 2026 Next Big Things in Tech list in the Applied AI category. Developed by TransGrid Energy, the system coordinates grid electricity, battery storage and on site generation for data centers. Read more
E&R Engineering to showcase laser and packaging systems at SEMI West 2026
E&R Engineering will present five axis laser micromachining and semiconductor packaging processing systems at SEMI West 2026 in San Francisco. The Taiwanese company will also highlight its US technical support services. Read more
NX Group and JAL launch 747F cargo service across Asia and North America
NX Group and Japan Airlines launch a weekly Boeing 747 freighter route linking Los Angeles, Narita, Taipei and Singapore. The service will carry AI, semiconductor, data center and other oversized cargo, with its first flight departing Los Angeles on October 3, 2026. Read more
Cedar Investment Group launches to finance AI data centre capacity
Cedar Investment Group launches to develop and finance large scale data centre projects for AI and hyperscale customers across North America. The firm reports a pipeline of more than 2GW of US projects and says its team has closed more than $2.5 billion in bank and bond facilities since 2023. Read more
DC Market Insights forecasts data center cable market at $27.29B by 2035
DC Market Insights forecasts the global data center cable market will grow from $10.65 billion in 2025 to $27.29 billion by 2035. Rising demand from AI data centers is expected to increase fiber optic cabling use, as these facilities require more cabling per megawatt than conventional data centers. Read more
Delta Electronics showcases AI data center power and cooling infrastructure at OCP Summit
Delta Electronics will present power delivery, microgrid and liquid cooling systems for AI data centers at the OCP Global Summit 2026 in San Jose. The showcase covers infrastructure from onsite energy systems to chip level cooling, including 800 VDC technologies. Read more
Viega press fittings accepted by Open Compute Project
Viega says its ProPress Stainless and MegaPress Stainless press fittings are listed as accepted solutions in the Open Compute Project Marketplace for liquid cooling and data center piping. The company says it is currently the only accepted provider of press fitting products in the marketplace. Read more
MediaTek and Airoha showcase AI network platforms
MediaTek and Airoha Technology will present Wi Fi, 5G CPE and PON platforms at Network X 2026 in Vienna. The companies will highlight network transitions including Wi Fi 7 to Wi Fi 8, XGS PON to 50G PON, and 5G to 5G Advanced. Read more
Old World Industries and Integrity Systems partner on AI data center cooling monitoring
Old World Industries and Integrity Systems partner to combine Thermal Charge cooling fluids with real time monitoring, predictive analytics and diagnostics. The offering is designed to help data center operators monitor cooling loop health and schedule maintenance. Read more
DC Market Insights forecasts AI chip market at $677.59 billion by 2035
DC Market Insights forecasts the global AI chip market will grow from $185.26 billion in 2025 to $677.59 billion by 2035. The report identifies inference workloads, custom AI silicon and edge devices as growth drivers, while GPUs remain the largest segment. Read more
Microsoft launches RTX Spark AI PCs with updated Windows 11
Microsoft introduces the Surface Laptop Ultra and Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, which use Nvidia's RTX Spark chip for local AI model processing. The company also adds Execution Containers to Windows 11, while Dell opens preorders for an XPS 16 Creator Edition using the same chip. Read more
myrtle.ai details STAC-ML records for VOLLO tree inference
myrtle.ai reports that its VOLLO accelerator set new STAC-ML Markets records for gradient boosted tree inference in audited tests. Running on an AMD Alveo V80LL accelerator, it recorded p99 latency below 2 microseconds across three models and up to 50 million inferences per second. Read more
Microelectronics US names steering committee for 2027 Austin event
Microelectronics US names senior leaders from companies including NVIDIA, AWS, Siemens and GlobalFoundries to guide its first Austin conference. The May 2027 event will focus on semiconductors, AI infrastructure and related technologies. Read more
LandGate identifies North Dakota as an AI data centre hotspot
LandGate, a Wood Mackenzie business, identifies North Dakota as a growing market for AI and high performance computing data centres. The state has 15 operating facilities and 17 under development, supported by relatively low power prices and available substation capacity. Read more
DIGITIMES report examines 800VDC power for AI data centers
DIGITIMES Intelligence examines how growing AI power demand could push data centers toward 800VDC power architectures. The report covers potential effects on power delivery, cooling, semiconductors, server manufacturers and infrastructure suppliers. Read more
Airoha Technology details 50G-PON AI gateway processor
Airoha Technology and MediaTek showcase a 50G-PON AI gateway processor at Network X 2026, supporting symmetric 50 Gbps transmission, Wi-Fi 8, edge AI and post-quantum cryptography. The platform includes an LLM based agent designed to diagnose broadband faults and perform approved remediation actions. Read more

We hope you enjoyed this article

Consider subscribing to one of our newsletters like Silicon Brief or Daily AI Brief.

Also, consider following us on social media:

AI Chips & Datacenters AI Brief AI Brief (X)
Free newsletter

Silicon Brief

Weekly coverage of AI hardware developments including chips, GPUs, cloud platforms, and data center technology.

AI Token Webinar