AmberSemi Raises $30 Million to Make Data Centers More Energy-efficient

A semiconductor startup in the East Bay has raised $30 million in fresh capital as it ramps up production of a component that improves the energy usage of AI chips in data centers. 

Amber Semiconductor raised the Series C from new and existing investors, the company announced on Tuesday. It declined to disclose its valuation and its investors but confirmed that the new round brings its total funding to $50 million. 

Despite the intense competition for venture capital right now, particularly among chip designers and the major AI labs, CEO Thar Casey told the Business Times that he is already preparing to raise another round of financing, possibly again this year. 

“The environment is difficult. There’s no doubt about it,” Casey said. 

One of the challenges he’s had is educating potential investors about what AmberSemi does, and why it’s important. 

“Vertical power delivery — it’s a new concept. People are not familiar with that. They don’t understand it. However, the AI cluster companies, they understand that very, very well because they’re the ones who’re going to be needing this solution,” Casey said. 

Heading off the AI energy crunch

Also known as AmberSemi, the nine-year-old Dublin-based startup designs power supply components that make chips more energy-efficient and, by extension, can reduce the amount of energy needed for data centers to operate. It does this by shrinking down the power component and placing it directly underneath the processors. It’s currently ramping up production of a vertical power supply component called PowerTile which it aims to start shipping to customers in the third quarter of the year. 

AmberSemi estimates that its PowerTile can reduce the amount of wasted energy in state-of-the-art AI chips by 67%, including Nvidia‘s anticipated new Rubin Ultra chips which are expected to launch in the second half of 2027. The company works with hyperscalers — cloud providers like Amazon, Microsoft and Google that cater to the AI industry’s vast computing demands — chip designers and other manufacturers, though the company didn’t disclose its current customers. 

Energy usage is clearly on the mind of industry leaders.

“There’s never enough energy,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told Bloomberg Technology in January. “Whatever energy you have, you have to make it as energy efficient as possible.”

Global worries

The startup has also built out a supply chain with multiple established manufacturing partners to protect itself from uncertainty, whether due to geopolitics or competition. Potential supply chain disruption is the “single biggest fear” that big customers have when working with small startups like AmberSemi, Casey said. 

“We made sure that we secured our supply chain for mass production,” Casey continued. “I could use anybody, any foundry. And that allows us to do what we need to do at mass production. It also puts our customers’ mind at ease when they see that we are using reputable companies.” 

He’s also hiring strategically. AmberSemi has close to 30 employees and Casey anticipates growing the team to around 50 people. The company plans to open a new office in Asia soon. 

“You hire people, it’s your responsibility” to make good business decisions that prevent layoffs, Casey said, explaining that his hiring strategy aligns with the company’s growth. Employees “have their families, their kids, their future … We try to run a very, very tight ship.” 

Casey isn’t worried about an AI bubble, either. In fact, he sees plenty of room for growth. 

“Everything plateaus at one point,” Casey said, but “there is so much AI to come. We haven’t even reached anywhere near peak.” 

Last year Casey attended an AI and energy summit alongside President Donald Trump and other major tech executives. “My objective in here is to build something that every data center in the world can benefit from,” Casey told the Business Times in July.  

The artificial intelligence industry is scrambling to build out more data centers and energy sources to fuel its growth. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta have signed deals with utility providers to purchase nuclear energy.  

Alphabet acquired a San Francisco-based renewable-energy startup called Intersect Power for $5 billion in December. By late 2025, OpenAI had signed circular infrastructure deals for power and computing capacity worth $1.4 trillion. 


By Sara Bloomberg – Staff Reporter, San Francisco Business Times March 10, 2026

Click to read the original article: AmberSemi raises $30 million to make data centers more energy efficient – San Francisco Business Times