Playground Global Showcases the Future of Compute in Taiwan

New companies, products and partnerships highlight Taiwan's role in accelerating deep tech 

TAIPEI, Nov. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Playground Global, the leading deep tech venture capital firm, today announced new companies, innovations, and partnerships across its next-gen compute portfolio — spotlighting Taiwan as the accelerator for the next era of computing. From power and photonics to interconnect and lithography, seven Playground companies shared major milestones at a press conference in Taipei — demonstrating how Taiwan's ecosystem takes the industry's most advanced technologies from concept to scale. Playground also co-hosted a dinner with Foxconn Chairman Young Liu as part of the visit, highlighting a shared focus on advancing deep tech in Taiwan and the longevity of Playground and Foxconn's partnership.

"I've been coming to Taiwan for more than 40 years, and every time I'm reminded this is where technology breakthroughs become reality," said Pat Gelsinger, General Partner at Playground Global. "No ecosystem moves faster from idea to scale. Taiwan's precision, pace, and deep tech expertise make it the world's proving ground for the industry's most ambitious hardware companies — and a critical hub for Playground as we support founders from concept and prototype to production."

Behind that rapid progress is a deeper transformation, said Peter Barrett, General Partner at Playground Global. "From advancing the fundamentals of how we compute, from giant leaps in EUV lithography to new ways of powering and interconnecting semiconductors, to entirely new architectures for AI and high-performance computing that break with eighty years of convention, and onward to quantum systems and technologies beyond semiconductors, Playground's portfolio companies underscore a profound truth: we are only at the beginning of the computing revolution."

Playground Portfolio Companies Announce New Breakthroughs and Partnerships in Taiwan
Across company launches, product unveilings, and collaborations, Playground's portfolio showcased how deep tech innovations are being built and scaled through Taiwan's world-class ecosystem.

PowerLattice Technologies –  Company and product launch, new funding 
PowerLattice came out of stealth today with $25 million in funding from Playground to introduce the industry's first power-delivery chiplet. By bringing power directly into the processor package, PowerLattice delivers the performance and efficiency gains AI systems need to continue scaling — cutting energy use by over 50% and doubling performance. PowerLattice is already sampling with major U.S. customers as it moves toward full-scale deployment.

PicoJool – Company and product launch, new funding
PicoJool, a pioneer in high-performance optical connectivity, emerged from stealth today with $12 million in funding from Playground. PicoJool builds light-speed optical interconnects that replace copper in AI and high-performance computing data centers—cutting power and heat, reducing cost, and unlocking significantly more bandwidth per rack. Based in the U.S., PicoJool manufactures entirely in Taiwan, leveraging the local semiconductor ecosystem to accelerate development and scale. 

Vertical Semiconductor – Product sampling in Taiwan
Backed by $11 million in funding, Vertical Semiconductor is rewriting how power flows through AI data centers. The MIT spinout is developing vertical GaN transistors that deliver more power to AI chips all while cutting heat, shrinking power system footprints, and improving overall performance. Today, Vertical introduced early sampling of its high-efficiency transistors, unlocking smaller, cooler, and more cost-effective power systems for next-generation AI infrastructure.

Ayar Labs – New partnership in Taiwan; Gelsinger joins board
Ayar Labs is redefining AI system design with its breakthrough optical I/O chiplets for co-packaged optics. By using silicon photonics to move data with light instead of electricity, Ayar Labs solution eliminates bandwidth, latency, and power bottlenecks that limit traditional electrical interconnects. Its optical solution delivers 5–10× more bandwidth, 3–5× greater energy efficiency, and 10× lower latency — unlocking entirely new system architectures for next-generation AI and high-performance computing. Yesterday, the company announced a strategic partnership with Global Unichip Corp.(GUC), to integrate CPO into GUC's advanced ASIC design services. Ayar Labs also announced that Pat Gelsinger has joined its board, strengthening the company's leadership as it enters its next phase of growth and global integration.

d-Matrix – New partnerships in Taiwan
An AI inference pioneer, d-Matrix is enabling faster, more efficient, and scalable AI with its breakthrough in-memory compute architecture. Its chiplet-based platform overcomes the "memory wall" in generative AI, delivering up to 10× lower latency and 10× greater energy efficiency than GPU-based systems — powering the next generation of high-performance, low-power AI infrastructure. d-Matrix recently raised $275 million in Series C funding, valuing the company at $2 billion and bringing the total raised to date to $450 million. Today, d-Matrix announced a collaboration With Alchip, ASE, and TSMC on the World's First 3D DRAM Solution to Supercharge AI Inference. 

NextSilicon – Technology debut in Taiwan
NextSilicon is reinventing high-performance computing with its Intelligent Compute Architecture, delivering 10× speedups over traditional GPUs while consuming half the power. Its software-optimized accelerator adapts dynamically to complex workloads, enabling unmatched performance and efficiency across industries from finance to scientific research. Backed by over $300 million in funding, the company today announced in Taiwan its flagship chip, Maverick-2, along with a custom RISC-V CPU core, expanding its reach beyond accelerators.

xLight – Company debut in Taiwan
Backed by over $50 million in funding, xLight is addressing the biggest productivity bottleneck in semiconductor manufacturing: the EUV lithography light source. In its Taiwan introduction, the company shared how it's developing the world's most powerful free electron lasers to help foundries boost throughput, improve yield, and reduce costs — delivering up to 5× greater energy efficiency per wafer. xLight is building the next-generation light engines that will double existing fab productivity, and power the fabs of tomorrow.

Playground's engagement with Taiwan is more than an investment — it's a shared bet on the future of computing. The combination of Playground's technical depth and global perspective with Taiwan's unmatched capabilities in semiconductors, advanced packaging, and precision manufacturing is laying the foundation for the next era of high-performance, sustainable innovation.

About Playground Global
Playground Global is a deep tech venture capital firm with over $1.2 billion under management, backing early-stage startups tackling foundational challenges in next-generation compute, automation, energy transition, and engineered biology. Founded in 2015 and based in Palo Alto, Playground partners closely with technical and scientific founders to turn breakthrough ideas into enduring companies. The firm's portfolio includes PsiQuantum, MosaicML (acquired by Databricks), d-Matrix, Agility Robotics, Ideon, Ultima Genomics, and Strand Therapeutics. Learn more atwww.playground.vc

SOURCE Playground Global