Justin Kinsey’s Post

The recent news about DeepSeek was like tossing a wet blanket on a roaring fire—it couldn’t extinguish the red-hot excitement investors have for AI! The flames CONTINUE to burn and I believe the next quarter-billion dollars of investment in AI companies is imminent. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I do have twenty years of experience advising executives in the semiconductor industry which has sharpened my senses about market signals and my “gut feel” about the people that make startups successful and from what I can tell, these four AI companies are on the verge of their next funding milestones: 🔥d-Matrix - Sid and Sudeep bet YEARS ago that DIMC would transform AI in the “Age of Inference”, and that time is now! They’ve been on a tear since Series B, hiring outstanding talent and bringing their flagship product, Corsair, to life. I think investors will reward their vision and leadership with another round of funding soon to help them go to HVM. 🔥MemryX Inc. - They’re solving the pains most engineers and developers face with truly easy-to-deploy SW paired with their low-power silicon for edge AI. They’re also adding partners at an increasing rate and CEO Keith Kressin just brought in the veteran sales leadership of Chris Stevens so I think they’re approaching the tipping point of momentum where fresh funding will help them scale production and deployment. 🔥Lemurian Labs - Building a platform that makes HW/SW integration seamless and hardware-agnostic is a powerful counterpoint to the question of, “Which AI HW companies will win?” Rather than picking individual winners, smart investors will focus on building the market itself—a vision that Jay Dawani championed at last year’s AI Hardware Summit– and everyone wins when they bet on Jay. 🔥Neurophos - Iterative changes never shake the world like the transformative ones, and Neurophos is aiming to revolutionize compute with their photonics-based processor. CEO Patrick Bowen has been working just as hard on building his team as developing their device, and recent technical hires from Meta and Lightmatter as well as an ex-AMD product leader hint at growing momentum which will surely catch attention because you don’t just invest in technology, you invest in PEOPLE. These companies are tackling some of AI’s biggest challenges—from power consumption to ease of deployment—all of which will help make AI more accessible to all. But beyond the technological impact, their growth will create more opportunities for brilliant engineers and leaders eager to apply their skills in organizations that are truly making an impact. For top engineers/leaders, joining a startup isn’t just a career move or a quick path to wealth (BELIEVE me, there are easier ways to get rich!). It’s about building something groundbreaking–which is grueling, exhausting, exhilarating and rewarding simultaneously. If you’re a builder, keep an eye on these companies. #semiconductorindustry #artificialintelligence #startups