Stealth semiconductor-equipment startup building lithography tooling to challenge ASML's EUV monopoly.
Source Foundry is a stealth-mode semiconductor capital-equipment startup founded in 2025 by Stanford researchers Abdulmalik Obaid and Joe Burg. It is building machines, equipment and software that sit upstream of chip fabrication, starting with lithography - the step ASML dominates through the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) scanners required to pattern the most advanced logic and memory used in AI accelerators. Despite the name, the company is not a foundry in the TSMC sense: it does not fabricate chips for customers and is not positioned against contract manufacturers. Its stated target is the tooling and process layer, redesigned to serve AI-workload demand and to relieve what Sequoia partner Stephanie Zhan has called the tightest bottleneck in semiconductor manufacturing. The company operated with no public product, website or customer list through mid-2026. In August 2026 the Wall Street Journal reported that Leopold Aschenbrenner's hedge fund Situational Awareness had committed a further $400M, lifting its total position to roughly $500M, against a recent round valuing Source Foundry at $5B; Sequoia Capital is also a backer. That bet is notable for its timing - Situational Awareness had just taken heavy AI-related losses and sold its entire public equity book to Citadel in July 2026, making Source Foundry one of its largest remaining concentrated positions. Source Foundry should not be confused with Substrate, a separately funded, Thiel-backed startup pursuing the same ASML-challenger thesis via a different lithography technique.
SemiconductorsFounded 2025
Current Valuation
$5.0B
as of 2026-08
UNICORN
QL Price
$5.0B
0% vs last round
QuantLogix's current estimate for Source Foundry, published 2026-09-11 — in line with the last disclosed round of $5.0B (2026-08).
Confidence
low
Basis
round anchored
What backs this price
Last disclosed round
$5.0B
2026-08
weight 0.93
How this price has held up
No round has priced for Source Foundry since QuantLogix began publishing a price for it, so there is nothing to grade yet. The claim above is on the record from 2026-09-11 and will be graded against the next priced round. See the full accuracy record →
Which publicly-traded funds already hold it, what $10,000 buys, and whether any route is open to you.
Cite this price as QuantLogix QL Price, Source Foundry, 2026-09-11 (d7da5a217fe31edf).
The id pins this exact claim, so a citation stays checkable after the price moves.
Model estimate for research — not a quote, target price, or investment advice.
IPO Outlookprivate
Is Source Foundry going public?
No. Source Foundry is private and has not filed to go public. There is no S-1 on file.
What is Source Foundry's valuation in 2026?
Source Foundry is valued at $5.0B as of Aug 2026, set by its Undisclosed (late-stage private) ($400M, Aug 2026). That is the last confirmed mark, not a live price — private shares do not trade continuously.
Has Source Foundry filed an S-1?
No public S-1 is on file for Source Foundry.
Who are Source Foundry's investors?
Source Foundry's investors include Situational Awareness, Sequoia Capital.
Answers are derived from the roster record shown on this page — filing status, last round and confirmed marks. Where the record is silent, the answer says so rather than guessing.
Company Profile
Founded
2025
Growth
Reached a reported $5B valuation within roughly a year of incorporation, having raised at least several hundred million dollars, with no publicly disclosed product, revenue, customer or headcount
Undisclosed (late-stage private) · $400M · 1 mo ago
private3 disclosed rounds
Undisclosed (late-stage private) Impact
Round Size
$400M
Primary financing announced
Post-Money Valuation
$5.0B
Company-announced mark
Round / Post-Money
8.0%
New capital ÷ post-money
Step-up compares disclosed post-money valuations. Round / post-money is a financing-size ratio, not an ownership or dilution estimate.
Growth & Valuation
Capital raised per round
Charts built from publicly disclosed funding rounds and revenue estimates. Approximate, not real-time, not investment advice.
Funding History
Round
Amount
Date
Lead Investor
Post-Money
Undisclosed (late-stage private)
$400M
Aug 2026
Situational Awareness
$5.0B
Undisclosed (earlier position)
$100M
Situational Awareness
—
Undisclosed (Sequoia)
—
Sequoia Capital
—
Talent Signal
Hiring trend
● First snapshot
trend accrues with monthly sweeps
Open roles
4
via ashby
Product-build share
0%
engineering, research, product, design
Trajectory
steady
go-to-market push — Only 0% of open roles build product — hiring is concentrated in sales/marketing/ops (4 of 4 open roles are other).
Actively hiring with no tracked executive churn.
Open roles by month
Open roles by function
■ product-building ■ go-to-market / G&A
Member of the Technical Staff (MTS)MachinistTechnicianYou tell us!
Counted from Source Foundry's live job board as of 2026-08-17; role functions classified from posting titles. Open-role counts are an activity signal, not headcount. Refreshed monthly.
Founders & Key People
Abdulmalik ObaidJoe Burg
Investors
Situational Awareness · Sequoia Capital
Products
Lithography tooling for advanced-node semiconductor manufacturing (pre-product, in stealth)
Semiconductor manufacturing equipment and process systems upstream of fabrication
Software for semiconductor manufacturing tooling
Manufacturing processes redesigned around AI-accelerator workloads
Competitors
ASML · Canon · Nikon · Applied Materials · Lam Research · KLA · Tokyo Electron · Substrate
Private-company numbers are not real-time. Reflects publicly disclosed valuations from press releases, news reports, and tender offers as of 2026-08. Refreshed quarterly.