Silicon Box Or Silicon Black Box?

Singapore's newly minted Silicon Box unicorn is a curious affair...

Silicon Box, the Singapore-based startup founded in 2021, was in the news recently on two different occasions. The first, on January 9 2024, details here, hailed their status as a unicorn having just completed a Series B funding round bringing their valuation neatly to ~$1 billion.

According to this press release issued by the company

Silicon Box announced a successful $200M Series B fundraising round, bringing the company to over a one-billion-dollar valuation. All three founders were investors in the round. Other strategic investors into Silicon Box include BRV Capital; Event Horizon Capital; Grandfull Convergence Fund; Hillhouse Capital; the corporate venture arm of Lam Research, Lam Capital; Maverick Capital; Praesidium Capital; Tata Electronics; TDK Ventures; and UMC Capital.

The second announcement came on March 11 2024, details here. It concerned Silicon Box’s decision to launch a new $3.6 billion packaging foundry in Italy:

ROME, Italy – 11 March 2024 - Silicon Box cutting-edge, advanced panel-level packaging foundry announced its intention to collaborate with the Italian government  to invest up to $3.6B (€3.2B) in Northern Italy, as the site of a new, state-of-the-art semiconductor assembly and test facility. This facility will help meet critical demand for advanced packaging capacity to enable next generation technologies that Silicon Box anticipates by 2028.  The multi-year investment will replicate Silicon Box’s flagship foundry in Singapore which has proven capability and capacity for the world’s most advanced semiconductor packaging solutions, then expand further into 3D integration and testing.  When completed, the new facility will support approximately 1,600 Silicon Box employees in Italy. The construction of the facility is also expected to create several thousand more jobs, including eventual hiring by suppliers. Design and planning for the facility will begin immediately, with construction to commence pending European Commission approval of planned financial support by the Italian State.

This announcement comes less than a year after Silicon Box announced their first factory, a 75,000 square metre, $1.5 billion facility in Singapore:

Singapore, 20 July 2023 - Silicon Box, a Singapore-based cutting-edge semiconductor integration startup, launched its SGD 2 billion advanced semiconductor manufacturing foundry to revolutionise the chip manufacturing sector, develop local capabilities, and boost Singapore’s position as a global hub for semiconductor manufacturing. Supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), Silicon Box is also looking to upskill and employ up to 1,200 highly skilled people with computer science, engineering, and design backgrounds.

The 73,000 sqm Tampines factory launched today with EDB Chairman, Mr. Png Choon Boon, attending as guest of honor.  Mr Png Cheong Boon and the three Silicon Box co-founders Dr. Han Byung Joon, CEO, Dr. Sehat Sutradja, Chairman of the board and Weili Dai.

“This new facility is well poised to solve the unique challenges for chiplet adoption, which is critical to meet market demands of emerging technologies. Our proprietary interconnection technology will not only shorten the design cycle of chips but also lower new device costs, reduce power consumption and enable faster time-to-market for industry partners like artificial intelligence, data centres, and electronic vehicles” explains Dr. Han CEO, Silicon Box.

At first glance it might appear that things are going so well for Silicon Box that the demand for their products +/or services cannot match their supply, hence the need to expand so rapidly. As you look a little deeper however, what exactly those products & services becomes somewhat more opaque.

As you search for customer testimonials, they are pretty thin on the ground; in fact there’s just one, provided directly by the company in one of their press releases. Spoiler alert, it’s not a very impressive testimonial.

From a funding perspective, Silicon Box did a Series A in August 2023 which raised $156 million and a Series B (January 2024) which raised $200 million. Curiously, they announced the launch of their self-described $1.5 billion facility in Singapore one month before the Series A was finalised. The Series B round was said to be used to expand production in the Singapore facility. It’s unclear how a total fund raise (to date) of $356 million translates into two facilities with a combined value of $5.1 billion. Even more bizarrely, the Series B values Silicon Box at just $1 billion.

Who exactly are the people behind Silicon Box and what exactly are they trying to accomplish with their unicorn startup? Let’s dig in …