Alice & Bob Funding, Investors & Competitors

Apple is among the largest companies in the world, with a broad portfolio of hardware and software products targeted at consumers and businesses. Apple’s iPhone makes up a majority of the firm sales, and Apple’s other products like Mac, iPad, and Watch are designed around the iPhone as the focal point of an expansive software ecosystem. Apple has progressively worked to add new applications, like streaming video, subscription bundles, and augmented reality. The firm designs its own software and semiconductors while working with subcontractors like Foxconn and TSMC to build its products and chips. Slightly less than half of Apple’s sales come directly through its flagship stores, with a majority of sales coming indirectly through partnerships and distribution.

Cisco Systems is the largest provider of networking equipment in the world and one of the largest software companies in the world. Its largest businesses are selling networking hardware and software (where it has leading market shares) and cybersecurity software such as firewalls. It also has collaboration products, like its Webex suite, and observability tools. It primarily outsources its manufacturing to third parties and has a large sales and marketing staff—25,000 strong across 90 countries. Overall, Cisco employs 80,000 people and sells its products globally.

Dell Technologies is a broad information technology vendor, primarily supplying hardware to enterprises. It focuses on premium and commercial personal computers, as well as enterprise on-premises data center hardware. It holds top-three market shares in its core markets of personal computers, peripheral displays, mainstream servers, and external storage. Dell has a robust ecosystem of component and assembly partners, and also relies heavily on channel partners to fulfill its sales.

Incorporated in 1911, International Business Machines, or IBM, is one of the oldest technology companies in the world. It provides software, IT consulting services, and hardware to help business customers modernize their technology workflows. IBM operates in 175 countries and employs approximately 300,000 people. The company has a robust roster of business partners to service its clients, which includes 95% of all Fortune 500 companies. IBM’s products, including Red Hat, watsonx, and mainframes, handle some of the world’s most important data workloads in areas like finance and retail.

KLA is one of the largest semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment, or WFE, manufacturers in the world. It specializes in the market segment of semiconductor process control, wherein machines inspect semiconductor wafers during research and development and manufacturing for defects and verify precise measurements. In this section of the market, KLA holds a majority share. It also has a small exposure to the etch and deposition segments of the WFE market. It counts as top customers the largest chipmakers in the world, including TSMC and Samsung.

Foxconn Industrial Internet Co Ltd is engaged in the design, research and development, manufacturing, and sales of various electronic equipment products. The company's main products include communications network equipment, cloud service equipment, precision tools, and industrial robots.

Hitachi Ltd is engaged in diverse businesses spanning industries, energy, IT, and real estate. The company operates through four business segments. The Connective Industries segment covers elevators, escalators, home appliances, air conditioning, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, medical analyzers, industrial and distribution solutions, water and environmental solutions, and industrial equipment. The Digital Systems & Services segment offers system integration, consulting, cloud services, IT products, software, and ATMs. The Green Energy & Mobility segment focuses on power grids, renewable energy, nuclear power, and railway systems. The Others include real estate management, sales, and leasing. It generates the majority of its revenue from the Green Energy & Mobility segment.

Tokyo Electron is a major supplier of semiconductor fabrication tools. It operates primarily in the etching, deposition, and cleaning segments, which involve adding and removing materials to and from semiconductor wafers. Customers include leading-edge logic, foundry, and memory chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics, Intel, TSMC, and SK Hynix.

Founded in 1954 and headquartered in Tokyo, Advantest specializes in semiconductor test systems and is a well-known leader in automated test equipment, or ATE. Advantest also has a high market share in test systems for nonmemory semiconductors, including application processors for mobile phones. The company is also involved in peripheral businesses, such as semiconductor device transport equipment. Following its acquisition of Verigy in July 2011, Advantest holds a market share of over 50% in the ATE market.

Mitsubishi Corp. is Japan’s largest general trading house, or sogo shosha, a type of conglomerate unique to Japan. Its core role is that of a trading intermediary in a variety of industrial sectors, including resources businesses like energy and metals as well as non-resources businesses, both industrial ones like automotive and non-industrial ones like food, healthcare, and retail. In addition to acting as a trading intermediary (including midstream processing functions to convert inputs into final products), Mitsubishi also participates in upstream production businesses and downstream distribution businesses.

Hon Hai Precision is the world's largest contract manufacturer of consumer electronics, communications, and computer products. It is the biggest supplier to Apple, whose business accounted for around 54% of overall revenue in 2023. Hon Hai is also involved in the production of upstream components such as electronic connectors, semiconductor packaging, and metal casings for smartphones, as well as producing servers. These upstream activities are mainly conducted through its listed majority-owned subsidiaries Foxconn Industrial Internet and FIH Mobile. In response to its traditional end markets of computers, smartphones, and telecom equipment maturing in 2019 it started on a strategy to develop expertise in three new growth areas-electric vehicles, digital health, and robotics.

Vertiv has roots tracing back to 1946 when its founder, Ralph Liebert, developed an air-cooling system for mainframe data rooms. As computers started making their way into commercial applications in 1965, Liebert developed one of the first computer room air conditioning, or CRAC, units, enabling the precise control of temperature and humidity. The firm has slowly expanded its data center portfolio through internal product development and the acquisition of thermal and power management products like condensers, busways, and switches. Vertiv has global operations today; its products can be found in data centers in most regions throughout the world.

Murata Manufacturing produces passive components for electronic devices. Passive components are necessary for all electronic circuits, used to enable wireless communication, store electricity and handle electric flow, remove electromagnetic noise from circuits, and so on. Thus, passive components are imperative for electronic circuits. For instance, one high-end smartphone contains more than 1,000 passive components. Murata Manufacturing is the world's leading supplier of passive components, such as MLCC and SAW filters.

Motorola Solutions is a leading provider of communications and analytics, primarily serving public safety departments as well as schools, hospitals, and businesses. The bulk of the firm's revenue comes from sales of land mobile radios and radio network infrastructure, but the firm also sells surveillance equipment, dispatch software, and other networking capabilities. Most of Motorola's revenue comes from government agencies, while roughly 25% comes from schools and private businesses. Motorola has customers in over 100 countries and in every state in the United States.

Bitmain is a Beijing-headquartered manufacturer of ASIC miners for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Founded in 2013, it produces Antminer series rigs dominating 70 percent of global hashrate. Bitmain operates mining pools like AntPool servicing 20 exahash per second and cloud mining services. Offices in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Chengdu, and Shenzhen support R&D in 5nm chip design.

Ayar Labs is a San Jose-headquartered semiconductor company pioneering in-package optical input/output technology. Its TeraPHY optical chiplet delivers terabit-per-second bandwidth with low latency for AI accelerators and data centers. The SuperNova light engine supports multiple wavelengths, and products integrate with processors from Intel and AMD to replace copper interconnects.

Frore Systems is a developer of solid-state active cooling technology for consumer electronics. Its AirJet Mini and AirJet Pro chips provide silent heat removal, boosting device performance in thin profiles. Headquartered in San Jose, California, the company maintains offices in Taiwan and South Korea to serve global OEMs in laptops and mobile devices.

Oratomic is a hardware developer building neutral-atom quantum processors intended to reach scalable fault tolerance.