(Bloomberg) — Rain AI has hired an Apple Inc. chip executive as head of hardware engineering, the second high-profile hire this month for the startup designing new semiconductors for artificial intelligence.
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Jean-Didier Allegrucci, who oversaw the development of alternative processors to Intel in the iPhone and Mac, will lead Rain AI's efforts to develop more energy-efficient chips. He will work with lead designer Amin Firozshahian, who joined the startup after five years at Meta Platforms.
San Francisco-based Rain AI, backed by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman and Y Combinator, is one of several startups looking to develop new hardware for AI platforms. The company is working on a technique called in-memory computing, which is modeled on how the human brain works and is expected to save energy by processing data where it is stored.
Rain AI is working with Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics on in-memory computing, a field that still faces questions about its economic feasibility and environmental impact, but in the long term, more efficient chips will be essential to adding AI to a wider range of devices.
“Our new compute-in-memory technology will unlock the true potential of today's generative AI models, bringing us one step closer to running the most advanced AI models faster, cheaper and more powerful than anywhere else,” Rain AI CEO William Passo said in a statement.
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