The company will spend $100 million to develop the next versions of its product, which connects processors in servers and other components. Ranovus will also patent its technological and process innovations, and grow its workforce from 88 to 200, CEO Hamid Arabzadeh told The Logic at an event announcing the award. (The Logic)

Talking point: Former Nortel executive Arabzadeh started Ranovus in February 2012. The firm’s chips are used in the hyperscale data centres from which many cloud-based applications and—increasingly—AI tools run. The SIF has already backed Ranovus, awarding it $20 million in November 2018; that helped pay for the development of the chip it’s now advancing, Arabzadeh said. The new project is “really bringing it into AI, to connect much higher-capacity chips.” Elsewhere, the federal government has allocated $250 million from SIF for semiconductor production projects as it looks to integrate into the U.S.-led reshoring of supply chains. This month, Arabzadeh and other sector executives told The Logic that Ottawa should help to scale the domestic ecosystem. But they’re more split on whether Canada should pursue the kind of fabrication facility that the likes of Intel and TSMC are spending billions to build in the U.S.