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Applied Ventures

Corporate VC·Santa Clara, California, USA·~$400M+ portfolio; deploys up to $100M per year

Applied Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Applied Materials, the world's largest supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the firm invests globally across the "Materials to Systems" technology stack, targeting startups in advanced materials, semiconductors, energy storage, AI and quantum computing. With a portfolio spanning over 90 companies in 18 countries, notable investments include Qolab (quantum computing) and Transphorm (GaN power semiconductors). Applied Ventures connects portfolio companies with Applied Materials' global customer and supply chain network.

Focus Areas

SemiconductorsAdvanced MaterialsEnergy StorageArtificial IntelligenceQuantum ComputingDisplay TechnologiesLife SciencesCleantech
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Portfolio

1 company in our directory

Salience Labs logo

Salience Labs

Hiring
Photonics·Series A

Salience Labs develops silicon photonics-based optical switches for AI data centres, enabling all-optical connectivity between compute nodes to overcome data-movement bottlenecks. Spun out from the University of Oxford and University of Munster in 2021, the company was co-founded by Vaysh Kewada, Johannes Feldmann, Harish Bhaskaran, and Wolfram Pernice. Its OC-32M all-optical switch delivers 10ns latency (20x lower than electronic alternatives) at under 1W per port, with 32-, 64-, and 128-port variants in development. Salience has raised $88M to date, including a $30M Series A led by Applied Ventures and ICM HPQC Fund. The company was ranked #28 in Sifted's AI 100 and #2 in Hardware. It is headquartered in Oxford with an office in San Jose.