Investment

Hprobe, a developer of testing equipment for magnetic devices,  has been acquired by Mycronic, a Swedish high-tech company specializing in precision production equipment for the electronics industry. 

Hprobe says that the integration represents a strategic move to enhance Hprobe’s technological and market leadership in MRAM and magnetic sensor testing, supporting the transition to high-volume manufacturing, and enhancing reliability and performance for end-users. by leveraging Mycronic’s global infrastructure, Hprobe will expand its presence across Asia, North America, and Europe while accelerating its technology and product roadmaps to meet growing demand for wafer testing of advanced MRAM and next-generation TMR sensors. 

Last month, during Everspin's conference call, the company updated that it has signed a contract with Purdue University to advance AI hardware based on its MRAM technology, valued at $10.5 million over four years. Now the company has officially announced this new contract. 

Everspin says that this is a strategic award to work with a consortium led by Purdue University to utilize Everspin MRAM as the underpinning in a program called CHEETA (CMOS+MRAM Hardware for Energy Efficient AI). The contract allows for phases totaling up to $10.5 million for Everspin Technologies over four years. The current phase with Everspin Technologies is valued at approximately $4 million.

Everspin Technologies reported its financial results for Q4 2024, with revenues of $13.2 million, and net income of $1.2 million. 

Reflecting on the whole year, revenues in 2024 reached $50.4 million (down 21% from 2023) and net profit  was $0.8 million. At the end of Q4 2024, the company had 42.1 million in cash and equivalents, up $3.8 million from the previous quarter. 

The Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC) has awarded $100,000 to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to expand the MRAM research conducted by Dr. Jayasimha Atulasimha

Atulasimha’s group is developing skyrmion-mediated MRAM (SkMRAM), a nanomagnet-based RAM technique that builds upon STT-MRAM technology while significantly improving energy efficiency. By adding a layer of heavy metal to STT-MRAM, energy consumption is reduced by 100-1000x, or 2-3 orders of magnitude. The resulting product is non-volatile, meaning that it can retain data even when the device is powered off, and has a very low write-errors rate, which means that it saves energy while writing information. It also doesn’t require standby power to retain information and is reliable. One patent currently covers this technology.

Vertןcal Compute, a new startup that was spun-off from the imec institute to commercialize its MRAM technology for AI applications, has raised 20 million Euro. The seed round was led by imec.xpand and supported by Eurazeo, XAnge, Vector Gestion, and imec.

The company says that it will develop an MRAM in-memory computing chiplet technology. The chiplet, according to the company, can reduce power consumption by 80% and speed up the execution of large language models for AI by 100X. It is believed that the company's MRAM is based on SOT-MRAM technology.

Everspin Technologies reported its financial results for Q3 2024, with revenues reaching $12.1 million (down from $16.5 million in Q3 2023), and a net profit of $2.3 million. 

For the fourth quarter 2024, Everspin expects total revenue in a range of $12 million to $13 million. At the end of Q3 2024, the company had $39.6 million in cash and equivalents, up $2.8 million from the previous quarter. 

Everspin Technologies announced that it has received a strategic $14.55 million 2.5-years project from the Department of Defense (DoD) to provide continued and stable manufacturing services for aerospace and defense segments. Under the award, Everspin will provide a plan to mitigate risks to its MRAM manufacturing supply chain.

Everspin is producing its MRAM products at its manufacturing line in Chandler, Arizon. In March 2024, Everspin announced that it has applied for the CHIPS Incentives Program, asking for funding for an additional 200mm MRAM production line. It seems as if this current DoD award is not that project that was applied to in March. In 2022, Everspin asked for funding to build a new MRAM production line in Indiana.

Everspin Technologies reported its financial results for Q2 2022. Revenues were $10.6 million (down from $15.7 million in Q2 2023), and net loss was $0.2 million (down from a new profit of $5.4 million in Q2 2023). The company is cash flow positive, generated $1.7 million in the quarter, and ended it with $36.8 million in cash and equivalents.

During the quarter, the company experienced weakness in toggle MRAM sales, partly due to inventory consumption and partly due to unfavorable currency exchange. Looking ahead, Everspin sees positive signs of inventory consumption, and expects a modest ramp in toggle MRAM sales in the rest of 2024. Everspin said it has strong traction with its new PERSYST family of MRAM products, and expects to start delivering the first products to its customers towards the end of 2024 or early 2025.