Does anyone have any ideas about what the potential strategic partnerships might be like, e.g. expected revenues, types of collaborations and companies involved. There have been some good points made in this
post about which companies and in what areas those strategic partnerships might be. Although, I wouldn't rule out Intel as a possibility with the
connections dadi must have at Intel and the investments Intel is making in israel, e.g.
foundry and
startups.
Below are some thoughts I have had on this topic:
- With the expertise and connections that Weebit has, I assume that there has already been a lot of promising discussions happening between Weebit and potential customers. From
Executive Series 16 May 18: Weebit Nano Ltd (WBT) CEO & Managing Director, Coby Hanoch “We’re extremely lucky to have people of this caliber in our company and I think that’s one of the things that’s really impressing investors and partners. We have been talking, already, to many leading potential customers”.
- I assume that Weebit will have higher yields and relative ease in manufacturing when compared to other competitors in the reram space due to it using silicon oxide. The benefits of silicon oxide are discussed by James Tour
here: “Silicon oxide is abundant, it is sand. There is plenty of it and it is non toxic. Silicon oxide is the best known material in the world studied more than any other material in the world. It has had over a trillion dollars and over a million person years invested into it because all of the silicon industry runs on silicon, silicon oxide interfaces. The reason we use silicon is because it can grow a stable oxide and we know how to control its growth. So, we know a lot about the material there is no retooling. We have chosen the material that works best.”
- Weebit has the “
SiOx Based Invisible / Transparent Nonvolatile Memory” patent. James tour mentions it
here. I think that especially in the wearables and IOT devices market, transparency could become very valuable in the future. With transparent memory you can, for example:
- have memory embedded within glass, i.e. make glass smart,
- use it for exotic new devices like transparent flexible memory chips
- use it to built on top of plastic, so it can even be part of the coating you’re looking at through the screen.
- Weebit’s memory chips also received a ‘Hard-Rad’ status from NASA, meaning they are “impervious to the effects of radiation”. Presumably, this is important for storage needs in satellite, military and similar niches.
- With Fred Bart involved I assume there has already been a lot of exploration of potential synergistic relationships with other companies.
Coby Hanoch has said: “We’re thinking big. We are constantly looking around at what’s happening. Our goal is to become a major player in the memory market, not just non-volatile. As you grow you want to become a key player in your industry, so we’re looking around we’re talking to companies that have interesting technology that can fit with ours and complement our technology to add some interesting features or functions to what we have.”
- Areas IMO where
reram seems especially applicable:
- cost-sensitive and power-constrained systems, such as wearables and IoT devices
- edge computing, i.e. in Internet of Things (IoT) applications that increasingly require edge computing in order to minimize data transmission requirements of the IoT devices.
- Neuromorphic computing which uses the computational functions inspired by the brain to enable artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Weebit’s announced plans for the rest of 2018, from the
May presentation:
Business
- Sign first cooperation agreement with a key industry player
- Explore collaborations with other technologies that can complement WBT’s technology
Technical
- Improve endurance and retention to meet industry standards by end 2018
- Define a plan and be on the path to develop 28nm technology - will open up new potential uses for WBT’s technology
Looking forward, it is important to note that in the semiconductor industry everything is measured in years and you don't wait until you have a product. This means that Weebit likely won't be producing product until late 2020 or 2021, however, they can start posting revenues maybe this year. This will happen when they make strategic partnerships with other companies in order to develop versions of the memory that are suitable to their needs. This is the usual practice in the industry and it means that Weebit’s first revenue will come from non-recurring engineering which is an upfront payment that will be made to Weebit in order to adapt their memory to the companies needs. Once production begins the company will then begin paying royalties to Weebit.
(20min delay)