Malaysian deep tech startup nanoSkunkWorkX (nSWX) has successfully raised US$2m in a seed funding round led by Singapore’s Tin Men Capital. This investment aims to address the global bottleneck in AI chip packaging by enhancing the efficiency of energy, heat, and electronic signal transfer in advanced devices. Co-founded by former NASA principal investigator Amani Salim and MIT-trained Iqbal Shamsul, nSWX has developed a core platform and three product lines with less than US$1.5m in pre-seed capital.
The funding will enable nSWX to qualify semiconductor partners, scale its interface-engineering process, and advance hydrogen validation and diagnostic programmes across Asia. The company’s lead product, nSD-I, is designed to improve heat dissipation and current capacity in AI chip packaging without replacing existing copper components. “The cost of building and operating AI infrastructure can be dramatically reduced through small efficiency gains,” said Iqbal Shamsul, Co-Founder and CEO of nSWX.
nSWX’s graphene-copper films have demonstrated the ability to transfer heat more than twice as effectively as traditional copper, offering potential reductions in AI inference costs and improved compute per watt. The startup is also working on improving charge transfer in green hydrogen and advancing diagnostics through a joint R&D programme with the U.S. Navy.
Jeremy Tan, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Tin Men Capital, expressed confidence in nSWX’s potential, highlighting the team’s understanding of physics and capital efficiency. The startup’s participation in the SemiconStart Malaysia cohort and recognition in the Baker Hughes Energy Ideas Generation Programme further underscore its promise in the tech ecosystem.
