New tech company wants to complete Arizona’s semiconductor ecosystem

Arizona-based Hyperion Technologies Inc. wants to fill a gap in the nation’s emerging semiconductor ecosystem.

The fledgling company has proposed a leading-edge, fully automated manufacturing plant in the Phoenix metro totaling about 600,000 square feet. The first phase of the project, likely earmarked for the West Valley, represents a $1.5 billion investment, adding to a swell of semiconductor facilities popping up throughout the region.

That facility is expected to create 1,500 direct jobs and domesticate production of advanced, high-density interconnect substrates and interconnect fabrics — “devices that are responsible for operating” semiconductor chips, said Sam Salama, CEO of Hyperion.

“If you imagine chips as pieces of Legos and you have a platform, you take these Legos and put them together to constitute the modern computing systems that are needed for AI or high-performance computing,” Salama said.

Advanced substrates are largely procured from Asian countries such as Japan, which currently produce most of these devices. “The entity to fabricate this does not exist in the United States, we are truly first of a kind,” Salama said.

Leveraging its extensive experience in the industry and its major technology partners, Hyperion expects to be the only company in the U.S. to produce these devices at scale as it grows, potentially competing on a global stage in a $600 billion industry that’s dominated by major corporations.

This story is posted in partnership with Phoenix Business Journal. Click to read the full story.