Maisons-Laffitte (France) and Bologna (Italy), May 13, 2024

SiPearl, the company building the high-performance low-power European microprocessor for HPC and AI inference, will open in a few weeks its Bologna office as the third operational subsidiary outside of France. After Duisburg and Barcelona, this opening illustrates the company’s ongoing internationalization strategy in key skills pools for semiconductor, HPC and AI.

Indeed, Bologna is at the heart of one of the most innovative and industrial regions in Italy and Europe. It is the home of the oldest University of the continent with more than 90,000 students and of Cineca, the largest Italian supercomputing centre, partner of the European Processor Initivative (EPI) consortium. Bologna also hosts the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) and, from 2025, will serve as the host city for a United Nations University (UNU) research and training institute, specializing in Big Data and AI. Besides, Bologna and Northern Italy are leading locations in academic research in semiconductors and chip design.

Matteo Tonelli (37, PhD in materials chemistry and catalysis from Lyon University, France) will join SiPearl in June to head up the subsidiary. Italian national, Matteo has a robust background in Research and Innovation with experience in both the public and private sectors. After earning his PhD working at Adisseo, he joined CNRS (French National Scientific Research Centre), then L'Oréal Research & Innovation department. Since 2020, he has managed external relations and partnerships at ANRT (French National Association for Research and Technology), an entity renowned for funding 1,700 industrial doctorates. As Italy Country Manager, Matteo will build a team of top-tier engineers and strengthen local partnerships. In addition, he will lead efforts to establish strategic alliances with key universities across Italy, further solidifying SiPearl's foothold in the region. Matteo will report to Anna Riverola who heads up International Development and Collaborative Research Programs.

“In my last position, my duty was to identify high potential tech companies engaged in Research & Innovation activities in France. As so, I have met Philippe Notton in April 2020. I was captivated by the combination of a high impact project and an industrial vision that was truly European. Since then, SiPearl has hired 190 collaborators, among which the first industrial PhD student with ANRT. I am thrilled to join SiPearl’s venture. Besides my knowledge of the French and Italian ecosystems, I am eager to contribute in building public-private partnerships, which are already central to SiPearl’s technological progress”, said Matteo Tonelli.

“We are thrilled to open our third international subsidiary in Italy. It will enable us to further strengthen our close connections with our key partners while enriching the talents of our R&D teams. I am very pleased of the recruitment of Matteo Tonelli. In particular, he will bring SiPearl his renowned experience in establishing strategic alliances with private et public actors to consolidate our local partnerships and to initiate others throughout Italy”, concluded Anna Riverola.

  About... SiPearl

SiPearl is building the European high-performance low-power microprocessor dedicated to supercomputing and AI inference. This new generation of microprocessors will first target EuroHPC Joint Undertaking ecosystem, which is deploying world-class supercomputing infrastructures in Europe for solving major challenges in medical research, generative AI, security, energy management and climate with a reduced environmental footprint.

SiPearl is working in close collaboration with its 30 partners from the European Processor Initiative (EPI) consortium - leading names from the scientific community, supercomputing centres and industry - which are its stakeholders, future clients and end-users.

SiPearl employs more than 190 people in France (Maisons-Laffitte, Grenoble, Massy, Sophia Antipolis), Germany (Duisburg), Italy (Bologna) and Spain (Barcelona).