China’s GaN pioneer Innoscience, founded by Nasa scientist, secures Google AI hardware deal

Innoscience, China’s pioneer in gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, said it completed design-ins for Google’s AI hardware platforms, signalling continued tech collaboration between Chinese and US companies despite broader geopolitical tensions.

The collaboration demonstrated “the company’s position in terms of technological advancement, product performance and quality,” Suzhou-based Innoscience said in a statement, adding that it would focus on “fields with high growth potential” including AI servers and data centres.

The firm’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose more than 11 per cent at the open on Wednesday, before closing at HK$55.15, up 2.5 per cent on the day.

Last August, Innoscience announced a deal with Nvidia for the deployment of an 800-volt direct current power architecture for the US giant’s AI data centres. Nvidia’s new electricity architecture is designed to support a 100 to 1,000-fold increase in AI computing power.

Founded in 2015 by scientist Luo Weiwei, Innoscience focuses on GaN, a material regarded as a cornerstone of so-called third-generation semiconductor technology.

Compared with traditional silicon, GaN devices can operate at higher voltages, temperatures and switching frequencies while delivering lower energy losses and smaller size. Other key materials in the same category include silicon carbide.

Luo, also the company’s chair, holds a doctorate in applied mathematics from Massey University in New Zealand and spent 15 years at a Nasa research institute. Before establishing Innoscience – which listed in late 2024 – she founded two other companies focused on advanced materials.

Innoscience claims to be the world’s first to achieve mass production of eight-inch silicon-based GaN wafers. Its monthly capacity reached 12,500 wafers as of June 30, 2024, and increased to 20,000 in 2025. The company said its five-year target for monthly capacity was 70,000 wafers.

The chipmaker supplies customers spanning consumer electronics, renewable energy and industrial applications, automotive electronics and data centres.

Innoscience’s revenue reached 553 million yuan (US$79.7 million) in the first half of 2025, up 43.4 per cent year on year, while net losses narrowed 12.2 per cent to about 429 million yuan. Gross margins turned positive at 6.8 per cent, compared with minus 21.6 per cent a year earlier, a company stock filing last year showed.

Sales related to AI and data-centre applications rose 180 per cent from a year earlier, while it noted the first mass shipments of GaN products used in humanoid robots, the company said in its mid-2025 report.

Innoscience is also locked in a long-running cross-border patent dispute with Germany’s Infineon over GaN device structures and manufacturing processes, with cases pending in courts in the US, Germany and China since 2024.

On February 2, the US International Trade Commission issued a partial final determination, requesting additional materials from the parties. The final determination is expected to be issued on April 2, 2026.