Microelectronics

Microelectronics are critical to both national security and broader economic competitiveness. Semiconductors are found in everything from cellphones to medical devices and from weapons systems to navigation devices. IQT firmly believes that the key to crafting the microelectronics of tomorrow resides in locating, financing, and developing the necessary tools today. It is a core principle that has driven IQT investment in the microelectronics field for nearly 20 years, leading to over 75 successful deals in the sector and making us one of the most active investors in the field. We began by focusing on areas such as RF wireless technology and Bluetooth, moved to investing in hardware related to AI and other applications, and are now supporting a new generation of startups developing innovative tools and techniques for building chips.

IQT uses three key drivers to guide its microelectronics investment strategy:

• Disrupt: investing in technologies that can fundamentally change the way the U.S. and its allies produce electronics—and especially ones that can help us break free from bottlenecks and dependencies associated with key microelectronics supply chains.
• Protect: refers to our efforts to help nurture and develop startup companies for our government partners and allies that ensure they have access to critical technological capabilities for national security needs.
• Generate insights: the knowledge we develop via our many investments, which helps our partners develop an even deeper understanding of the microelectronics landscape and key developments within it. This also powers a beneficial flywheel effect – the more insights we develop, the better we get at identifying and investing in disruptive innovations and companies, who in turn provide us with yet more valuable insights.

IQT’s Global Security Investing strategy means we’re focused on identifying disruptive startups and technologies around the world that help our government partners ensure America maintains leadership in key security domains. Microelectronics has been a very important focus for us since our inception and will continue to be one in the years ahead. IQT firmly believes that a strategic investment approach that brings together both public and private sector stakeholders is the only way to secure U.S. microelectronics leadership.