Fresh off a major expansion, Ranovus has set its sights on a lofty goal: becoming a cornerstone of what company founder and CEO Hamid Arabzadeh hopes will be a thriving homegrown ecosystem that helps power the next generation of AI. The Kanata-based photonics firm is ramping up production at its manufacturing facility on Hines Road, […]
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Fresh off a major expansion, Ranovus has set its sights on a lofty goal: becoming a cornerstone of what company founder and CEO Hamid Arabzadeh hopes will be a thriving homegrown ecosystem that helps power the next generation of AI.
The Kanata-based photonics firm is ramping up production at its manufacturing facility on Hines Road, which has just doubled in size from 15,000 to 30,000 square feet.
“It’s a big step for us,” says Arabzadeh, an engineer by trade who launched Ranovus 13 years ago.
Backed by US$170 million in funding from venture capitalists, customers, suppliers and various levels of government, Arabzadeh’s company is one of a handful of firms that are making waves in a still-nascent technology called co-packaged optics.
Ranovus’s devices use lasers to move data between chips on the processors that run AI models. It’s a much more efficient way of moving information at high speeds than the copper cables that have traditionally been the roadways for data, and it’s a field that many companies are only just starting to dip their toes into.
But from Arabzadeh’s perspective, being on the cutting edge is a bit of a double-edged sword.
Ranovus already stands out in a not-so-crowded field after landing deals with a number of international partners that include chip maker AMD, a rival to California-based semiconductor powerhouse Nvidia.
But trying to carve out a niche in a market that’s still young also means you’re walking a path that few others have travelled. While Ottawa has a wealth of firms like Ciena, Ericsson and Nokia that specialize in more traditional networking technology, Arabzadeh says it’s tough to find engineers who know the ins and outs of co-packaged optics.
“There’s not that many companies that work in our space,” he explains. “The skillset is very different. There are a lot of elements of it which don’t exist here in Ottawa, so you can’t really recruit those people.”
Arabzadeh knows he needs to find them if Ranovus is to stay at the forefront of its field.
The data centres and other infrastructure that form the backbone of AI are notorious energy hogs, some burning as much energy in a year as hundreds of thousands of homes.
Ranovus says the latest generation of its patented quarter-sized chips, called Odin, consume half as much power as current technology. And as the use of AI explodes, demand for products like the Kanata firm has pioneered is rising fast.
Besides expanding its own facility in the west-end tech hub, Ranovus has also partnered with photonics powerhouse Jabil to build a $20-million, 16,000-square-foot clean room in Kanata to help package its chips.
The company, which has grown from 88 employees two years ago to nearly 130 today, is continuing its hiring spree with the aim of producing 100,000 Odin chips annually. Arabzadeh says he expects the firm’s head count to hit 200 in the not-too-distant future.
But where to find those people? Arabzadeh is hoping a new generation of engineering grads from universities such as uOttawa and Carleton will be lured by the chance to get in on the ground floor of a new tech revolution.
“We’re trying to retool Ottawa for this new era of miniaturized technology,” he says. “It takes time, but you have to take measured steps to do this.”
