Substrate raised $100M and was the hottest thing on X a couple months ago — but is this company bullsh*t?
1. Its claimed advances are "stealth", i.e. no public evidence
2. Team seems to lack domain experts
3. Job postings are generic & somewhat nonsensical LLM outputs
🧐
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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I want to make videos like this in DaVinci Resolve.
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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Fascinating developments; brilliant american engineers planning to take ASML's EUV head-on! All power to them.
We are truly living in exciting times!😍
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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Oh boy am I itching to learn more. If you’re interested in science and technology, this is definitely a company to follow, though they’re probably going to stay incredibly tight lipped about how they surmount all the hurdles they face.
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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This industrial civilization is fucked
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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It's been a long time coming. Congrats on the public launch @substrate
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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This is a direct wealth transfer from Canadian pensioners to 27 year old coke heads who live in SF with a sclerotic WH in the middle.
An embarrassment.
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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It’s cheaper and more economically beneficial to increase the military aid budget and defend Taiwan to secure chips instead of dealing with tariffs and tech right slop like this
Honestly my gut is to be super skeptical but I’d love to be proven wrong. I hate being a cynical hater
A project in the most R&D heavy industry.
Led by a guy whose background ends at highschool computer science.
Whose last effort was a Kickstarter scam that might as well have stolen $2.5M.
Premised on tech completely irrelevant to high-volume manufacturing.
Worth $1B lol
Congratulations to James and team on this massive achievement!!!
a startup valued at the cost of 2 ASML euv tools trying to make technology proven impractical in the 90s viable. I would bet a million dollars this thing crashes and burns before they even buy a wafer.
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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This is our generation’s Manhattan Project. @jamesproud’s vision, depth, and audacity makes him the most impressive entrepreneur I know. He’s THE one person who can pull this off. 🇺🇸
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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Hard tech startups will continue to disappoint until the US learns what China already knows: There is no royal road to innovation. You can't jump to post-EUV and expect to be successful. You need to spend decades building local expertise, labor, and supply chains.
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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I don’t know if this company has the real deal tech, but I do know it’s imperative for the US to re-shore the entire tech stack for chips.
Substrate is building a next-generation foundry to return America to dominance in semiconductor production. To achieve this, we will use our technology—a new form of advanced X-ray lithography—to power them.
America invented semiconductors. We will lead again.
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Immediately after I left government, I was on @labenz’s podcast and he asked me what next-gen semiconductor manufacturing tech I was most excited about.
I smiled and said something to the effect of “no comment.” But in that moment, this company was at the top of my mind.