OpenAI Eyes Investment in Sam Zeloof & Jim Keller’s Chip Startup, Atomic Semi

American autodidact Sam Zeloof has teamed up with veteran microprocessor engineer Jim Keller to start Atomic Semi. The startup claims to manufacture affordable chips within hours as opposed to the usual months-long time period by using "radically" streamlined and downsized semiconductor fabs and prototyping integrated circuits.

According to the sources, ChatGPT creator OpenAI is in talks to invest in Atomic Semi, taking part in a seed round for roughly $15 million at a valuation of $100 million. Besides OpenAI, other prominent angel investors looking to invest in Atomic Semi also include Naval Ravikant, former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, and crypto fund Paradigm founder Fred Ehrsam.

Dream Team

At 17, Sam Zeloof built a home microchip fabrication facility in his parent's garage. In 2018, he created the Zeloof Z1, a PMOS dual differential amplifier chip, the first homemade lithographically synthesised microchip. With the development of the transistor array Zeloof Z2, he reached a transistor count of 100 in 2021. On the other hand, Keller is an industry stalwart, known for his massive contributions at AMD and Apple, among others. 

Now, OpenAI’s plan to invest in Atomic Semi also comes in the backdrop of Microsoft's recent plans to invest a whopping $10 billion in OpenAI, a significant increase from its initial 2019 investment of $1 billion.

Together with Microsoft and other partners, OpenAI announced a $100 million startup fund in 2021 to support AI-based startups. Additionally in 2022, OpenAI revealed that it would begin its five-week Converge programme, which the OpenAI Startup Fund would back. The new cohort intends to support entrepreneurs with AI-based firms. The selected candidates will receive a $1 million equity investment, early access to OpenAI models like GPT-3, DALL.E 2, and others, as well as programming specifically designed for AI businesses.