The archive · Hardware & Devices · Technical decision · 2024–2026
Atum Works bets 3D nanolithography, not shrinking, extends the chip roadmap
Atum Works bets 3D-printing chips at wafer scale with 100nm resolution beats stacking 2D layers; YC Spring 2025, TechCrunch's 'next Nvidia' pick.
Atum Works
What the business is
A semiconductor manufacturing technology startup building 3D lithography that fabricates multi-material 3D structures at 100nm resolution at wafer scale — a '3D ASML' for the era after planar scaling.
Starting capital：YC standard $500K pre-seed (Spring 2025).
How it started
Founded in 2024 by a team of physicists and systems engineers from Caltech and NASA — winners of NASA's Most Visionary Concept and Best Product Development awards — Atum Works built on an industry concern voiced by TSMC Chief Scientist H.-S. Philip Wong: after 50 years of shrinking the transistor, the road ahead has reached the end of the tunnel. Stacking 2D layers scales cost exponentially — a 10-layer HBM package costs about 5x more than the same amount of unstacked DRAM — so the company proposed true 3D lithography instead and entered YC's Spring 2025 batch.
What happened
In April 2025 Atum Works publicly demonstrated its approach — fabricating multi-material 3D structures with 100nm resolution at wafer scale, claiming roughly one-tenth the cost of today's 2D lithography. By YC's Spring 2025 Demo Day (June 2025), TechCrunch reported investors calling the vision so revolutionary that the company 'has a chance to become the next Nvidia.' The YC directory page states the team has crossed cost thresholds that make the technology commercially viable, and lists an advisory board including TSMC Chief Scientist H.-S. Philip Wong, Intel Fellow Pooya Tadayon, Caltech's Julia Greer and silicon-photonics pioneer Michael Hochberg.
How it ended up
Still active and building: as of 2026 the company remains in R&D, saying it will drive an exponential scaling law in production capacity over the coming decade toward commercial nanomanufacturing.
Background
Atum Works, founded in 2024 by a team of physicists and systems engineers from Caltech and NASA, bet that the end of 2D semiconductor scaling creates a market for true 3D lithography. Its premise, echoed by TSMC Chief Scientist H.-S. Philip Wong, is that the 50-year path of shrinking transistors has reached a wall — and that stacking 2D layers, the industry's current workaround, scales cost exponentially.
The company's technology fabricates multi-material 3D structures with 100nm resolution at wafer scale, claiming roughly one-tenth the cost of today's 2D lithography. It publicly demonstrated the approach in April 2025, and at YC's Spring 2025 Demo Day TechCrunch reported investors calling the vision so revolutionary that Atum Works 'has a chance to become the next Nvidia.'
Backed by YC's standard $500K pre-seed and advised by TSMC's chief scientist, an Intel Fellow and Caltech's Julia Greer, the startup says it has crossed the cost thresholds that make the technology commercially viable. As of 2026 it remains in R&D, planning to drive an exponential scaling law in production capacity over the coming decade — targeting not just chips but biotech, sensing and advanced materials.
What has to be true
- Planar lithography is approaching fundamental physical limits, so the next decade of chip progress requires a different manufacturing axis, not incremental shrinking.
- Stacking 2D layers scales cost exponentially, leaving room for a 3D process that scales complexity with materials rather than layers.
- A wafer-scale 3D printer with 100nm resolution could serve not only chips but biotech, sensing and advanced materials, widening the addressable market.
- Credibility from NASA, Caltech and an advisory board of TSMC/Intel scientists gave a moonshot hardware bet enough legitimacy to pass YC's bar.
What can be applied
When an industry's core technology plateaus, the winning bet is a different manufacturing axis, not a better version of the incumbent's tool — move where the old process cannot follow.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Atum Works is an active YC Spring 2025 startup in San Francisco, still in early-stage R&D. Its YC directory page states the team crossed cost thresholds that make 3D lithography commercially viable and intends to drive an exponential scaling law in production capacity over the coming decade, targeting semiconductors plus biotech, sensing and advanced materials.
Sources
- Atum Works: Gigascale Nanomanufacturing
- 11 startups from YC Demo Day that investors are talking about
- April 2025 News — Atum Works Launch
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