Frore Systems, a San Jose-based developer of solid-state cooling chips, has raised $143M in Series D funding led by MVP Ventures. The company produces AirJet active air cooling for edge devices and LiquidJet direct-to-chip liquid cooling for data centers. The capital will expand manufacturing in Taiwan.
AI Cooling Investments Surge
The round comes amid escalating funding in AI thermal solutions. Accelsius raised $65M Series B in January 2026 for two-phase liquid cooling. Frore's larger raise achieves $1.64B unicorn valuation, signaling conviction in solid-state alternatives.
Heat Throttles AI Compute
AI data centers face overheating from surging power densities. Cooling limits performance as every watt of compute becomes heat. Frore addresses this with refrigerant-free solutions replacing fans and bulky systems.
Solid-State Air Cooling for Edge
AirJet Mini G2 and PAK 5C-G2 deliver 7.5W cooling per chip silently and dust-proof. This enables sustained AI on NVIDIA Jetson and Qualcomm platforms without vibration. Unlike xMEMS piezo cooling or Phononic thermoelectric chips, AirJet uses ultrasonic MEMS for broader thin-device fit.
As CEO Seshu Madhavapeddy noted:
"Cooling has become the single greatest limiter of AI performance."
Liquid Cooling Scales Data Centers
LiquidJet coldplates handle 1950W TDP on NVIDIA Rubin GPUs and 600 W/cm² hotspots. LiquidJet Nexus fits 1/2U trays with zero hoses at 53°C inlet. This outperforms traditional liquid systems with 50% higher efficiency and 4x lower pressure drop.
Navin Chaddha from Mayfield observed:
"Everyone's racing to build faster AI chips. Nobody's talking about what's actually slowing it down: heat."
Growth Capital Fuels Scale
MVP Ventures led with Fidelity, Top Tier, Mayfield, and Qualcomm Ventures joining. Total funding reaches $340M at unicorn status. Investors back Frore's pivot to liquid cooling, inspired by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.
Data Center Cooling Explodes
The data center cooling market spans $31.39B in 2026 to $128.31B by 2033 at 22.3% CAGR. Solid-state cooling grows from $1.01B in 2026 to $2.06B by 2034. Phononic holds $295M funding, while JETCOOL raised $17M before acquisition.
Serial Exits Lead Thermal Push
CEO Dr. Seshu Madhavapeddy co-founded Spatial Wireless (acquired for $300M by Alcatel-Lucent) and Sipera Systems (acquired by Avaya). CTO Dr. Surya Ganti invented AirJet after roles at Intel and Qualcomm. VP Brian Gally commercialized Qualcomm's Mirasol MEMS displays.
Manufacturing and Hiring Ramp
Frore plans Taiwan manufacturing expansion and U.S. datacenter sales hiring. Recent roles target MEMS R&D, thermal engineering, and Head of US Datacenter Sales. AirJet mass production started December 2024, with LiquidJet demos at OCP and GTC.