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Serving a specific, specialised need in the global computer memory manufacturing scene, Grandis Inc was a private manufacturer of specialised ‘thin film’ memory and other ‘all purpose’ memory hardware. The company was formed in 2002 by Paul Nguyen, backed by Farhad Tabrizi and Steve Dominic, who both still reside on the board of directors.

The enterprise called California its home, with its base of operations in Milpitas, which can be found the South East of San Francisco. It was a relatively small operation, employing just 30 people, but it had some pretty substantial financial backing from the likes of Matrix Partners and Sevin Rosen Funds. The main goal of the venture was to pioneer ‘thin film’ storage solutions, based on ‘spintronics’ (abbreviated form of spin transport electronics).

Groundbreaking
One major breakthrough from this project came in the form of spin transfer torque random access memory (STTRAM), a technology that was reported to significantly improve the performance of electronic devices used in many different sectors and industries.

Expertise
One of the leading lights at the centre of this and the company’s other numerous innovations was its founder, Dr Paul Nguyen who was a notable expert in the field of thin film coating and a former president of computing giant IBM. This scientific knowledge was complemented by the financial nouse of Bill Almon, who was drafted in to assisted with raising the required funding.

Yiming Huai and Farhad Tabrizi were also brought in as seasoned corporate figures who played significant roles in the creation of partnerships with major companies like Renesas and Hynix.

Acquisition
Due to the success that Grandis had achieved in the STT-RAM sector, it had gained some reputation in the industry. This led to interest from the might of Samsung, who went on to acquire the company in 2011, merging all assets into their memory division.

The many investors that were involved in the launch of this successful venture included some major names and when the takeover occurred, they made a very tidy profit. In addition to those investors mentioned earlier, significant funds were contributed by Applied Materials Ventures, who are a major corporation listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Legacy
Whilst the brand officially ceased to exist after its purchase by the Japanese tech giant, Samsung, Grandis Inc’s legacy lives on in the many hundreds of patents that still exist and are still used by many of the major computer manufacturers around the world. The patents may now belong to Samsung, but the technology will forever carry the Grandis genes around with them.