Imec ITF World 2025: The hardware horizon for AI

Imec CEO Luc Van den hove opened ITF World 2025 by calling for “disruptive innovation over incremental change”. He underscored the need for tighter global collaboration to overcome looming bottlenecks in compute power, energy use and chip architecture. “By supercharging our innovation engine, we can future-proof our prosperity,” said Van den hove. 

The message resonated across sectors. Artificial intelligence (AI’s) march into everyday applications – from language models to autonomous driving – is raising the stakes for semiconductor R&D. Europe, facing renewed geopolitical pressure to secure its technology stack, is betting on advanced research and industrial pilot lines as strategic assets.

Van den hove highlighted a paradox: AI is moving so fast that traditional chip design cycles can’t keep up. By the time an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) reaches production, the target model may already be obsolete. Large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4 are hitting diminishing returns in performance despite rising computational demands. 

To address this, Imec is pursuing what it calls system-technology co-optimisation: tighter integration of chip design and software architecture. The goal is to build smarter, more efficient hardware capable of adapting to dynamic AI workloads. “It’s not just about more chips,” said Van den hove. “It’s about bridging the gap between algorithms, architectures and technology platforms.” 

This effort spans several fronts. In healthcare, Imec is advancing organ-on-chip platforms for AI-driven drug testing. The company’s microfluidics technology now supports biologically accurate models of the human blood-brain barrier, allowing researchers to test drug delivery for diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s with unprecedented realism and scale. 

In automotive, Imec presented updates on its chiplet-based architecture designed to power edge AI in vehicles. The modular approach allows sensor data from lidar, radar and cameras to be processed on compact, high-performance electronic control units (ECUs). “We’re talking about supercomputers in cars,” said Van den hove. 

Meanwhile, Imec’s work in quantum hardware focuses on scale. Rather than building entire systems, the organisation is leveraging its foundry capabilities to produce silicon qubits on 300mm wafers – an essential step towards building practical quantum processors. “This is where Imec’s foundry-scale expertise becomes critical,” he said. 

Much of Imec’s current roadmap hinges on solving three interrelated problems: compute density, power consumption and memory bandwidth.

To extend Moore’s Law, Imec is advancing a “CMOS 2.0” approach based on vertical scaling. Stacking transistors and chiplets into 3D configurations allows for functional customisation at each layer – an architecture aimed at squeezing more performance from smaller footprints. 

However, higher power densities bring thermal challenges. Imec is working on novel thermal management techniques, including direct liquid cooling and architectural designs that minimise heat concentration. 

The company is also rethinking memory. With most of AI’s energy cost tied to data movement rather than computation, Imec is exploring ferroelectric and magnetic memory, including vertical memory arrays under development by its spin-off, Vertical Compute. 

Optical interconnects are the final piece. By embedding lasers on photonic interposers, Imec aims to dramatically increase data transfer rates between chiplets, overcoming one of the key barriers to next-generation high-performance computing. 

One of the standout keynote speakers at ITF World 2025 was Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice-president of hardware technologies, who shared insights into how the company is meeting the demands of AI, performance and energy efficiency. “Our job at Apple is to ship, at scale, on time, with uncompromising performance and efficiency,” he said. “That requires not just innovation, but industrial discipline.” 

Central to Apple’s hardware strategy is customised silicon. Srouji explained that Apple designs chips not as general-purpose components, but as tailored engines for specific use cases. “We don’t start with a chip and ask what it can do – we start with the experience and design the silicon to make that possible,” he said.

This approach allows Apple to tightly couple hardware and software, and optimise across the entire stack, from power management to machine learning accelerators. 

Customisation also helps Apple hit ambitious energy efficiency targets. “Every microwatt matters,” said Srouji. “If you want to deliver billions of devices that last all day and perform complex AI workloads, you can’t rely on off-the-shelf solutions.” 

He acknowledged that this level of integration adds complexity, but said Imec’s role in the process is vital. “Imec gives us early access to process technologies and insights into what’s coming next,” said Srouji. “That lets us make better design decisions and de–risk what would otherwise be highly speculative innovation.” 

He called Imec’s collaborative model “a rare combination of academic depth and industrial pragmatism”, and noted that Imec’s pilot lines had helped Apple validate cutting-edge packaging and transistor concepts. “Without institutions like Imec, we wouldn’t be able to move at the speed we do,” said Srouji.

Beyond the technology, Imec’s conference served as a reminder of Europe’s broader ambitions. The €2.5bn infrastructure expansion – supported by the European Chips Act – is part of a plan to reinforce the region’s position in global semiconductor development. That includes new R&D hubs in Belgium, Spain and Germany. 

“The Chips Act isn’t about doing everything – it’s about doing the right things exceptionally well,” said Van den hove.

Europe’s strengths, he argued, lie in advanced R&D, photonics and pilot-scale production – areas where Imec plays a central role. 

Ultimately, the message from Antwerp was less about blue-sky visions and more about hard choices. If Europe wants to lead in AI, quantum computing and advanced semiconductor design, it will need to move quickly, invest wisely and collaborate across borders.

“Let’s supercharge our innovation engine and future-proof our prosperity together,” said Van den hove.