By james art 
In his state address in 2011, former governor Brian Sandoval announced that the technology would become a cornerstone of Nevada’s new economy.
This was a bold prediction, given the fact that the state was still deeply sunk in the consequences of the great recession. Nevada’s unemployment in 2011 rose about 13.5 percent, the highest in the country with several percentage points. Tourism and games, along with construction and mining, still formed the backbone of the silver country’s economy.
In addition, it turned out to be an unscrupulous forecast. Last week, the Reno Ai Hardware Manufacturing Startup Positron -based Reno Ai Hardware announced that it provided $ 23.5 million to finance risk capital from Incline Village Flume Ventures, whose partners include Sun Microste co -founder Positron has joined a continuously growing list of technology and advanced manufacturing companies that have planted flags in North Nevada over the last decade, including Google, Apple, Tesla, Switch and Redwood Materials.
Sandoval, now president of the University of Nevada, Renault, said that the thriving Nevada technology industry and the rich start -up community have far exceeded its original vision for the state.
“Back in 2011, I talked about Nova Nevada, where we will be on the ground floor of all the next big things,” he said. “We have compiled a strategic plan and created the Governor’s Economic Development Office. I think we have achieved this goal – this is the book for the case we hoped and developed. “
MITSH AGRAWAL, CEO of Positron, told NNBW at a Reno Public Market press conference that Positron is a US -based alternative to the NVIDIA’s AI Inference (AI conclusion is the conclusion of the pre -view AI models new data as opposed to AI Training, the original phase of AI training). Positron semiconductors are made in the foundry for Ocotillo semiconductors of Intel in Chandler, Arizona, with a meeting made in Washington using additional US components from Dell, Samsung and Micron.
The use of an internal supply chain reduces the dependence on NVIDIA’s AI hardware, which is made exclusively in Taiwan, Agraral said.
“From the point of view of the product, we were initially to work with our technology and put it on the market,” he said. “But then we got up to do it as you can. NVIDIA graphics processors are fully made in Taiwan and for good reason; They use the largest processor and the smallest size of the transistor and this is only available in Taiwan. But we figured out how to use older one or two-generation processing nodes and use the American ecosystem for our FAB setup. “
Positron was founded in 2023 by Agraval and Chief Technology Director Thomas Somers. The company sent its first -generation products in August last year. Its main product is its Atlas Atlas application server, which does not require additional changes to the software for companies that are already working in AI space, Agrawal said.
“You generally just power the server and it will start to maintain all language models (such as Chatgpt),” Agraval said. “You can just load them and let them go.”
The positron has already begun to move some functions of the server assembly to North Nevada, Agraral said. He hopes that one day Nevada becomes one -off -counter for the whole production process.
“The modern semiconductor production facility is between $ 15 billion and $ 20 billion,” Agraval said. “I can’t tell you how much a dream is to see an open FAB in Nevada and have our own semiconductor construction in the state.
“Where does AI go, semiconductors will be a big, much of our ecosystem and culture,” he added. “There will be many more jobs around the production and setting of semiconductors.”
Agrawal said Positron works with the Western Nevada Economic Development Authority to find a suitable office/production space. The challenge, he noted, is that the company’s work requires much more power than it is usually found in typical office space. The positron is looking at a leasing of a manufacturing facility in the southern meadows, Agraval said.
“This is a strange requirement,” he said. “Our office space requirement is average, but we need to find a place where these (tall) amperages are already available.”
The positron can be on the gap of unprecedented growth, as artificial intelligence continues to become deeper embedded in modern technologies and society, Agraral added.
“When I look at AI ecosystems and what is expected to do for us as human beings, whether it is really important applications in health and medical systems or consumer applications such as social media and games, this will be so much of our culture,” said He. “The power supply and provision of AI calculations will be a big business.
“We are in a great environment with the industry we are heading to, as well as in Nevada, which is friendly to large hardware builders of products,” he added. “We want to be the main technology that power these different ecosystems.”
In addition to being a US -based alternative, the positron value proposal is that its products are more energy and cost -effective, Argaval said. Inertia, he added, is a major barrier to accelerate their products more, as technology companies are often subjected to what has done before.
“You have to give people a real good reason to change both economic value and with ease of use,” Agraval said. “But it is also about maintaining demand – if you can continue, the companies will continue to grow with you. We need to make sure that we can deliver the companies the computing requirements they need – this is the big challenge for us as we grow. “
Taylor Adams, CEO of Edawn, said Positron is another confirmation that North Nevada has become a global destination to expand and relocate business.
“We can do it here like no other,” Adams said. “The businesses that start here are scathing here and growing here are, in the end, are the companies that will remain here and will create a future for our economy, which every city in the world would like to have.
“We find more and more that North Nevada is a place where technology comes on scale, and it’s an incredibly powerful thing for our economy,” Adams added.