El Dorado Hills tech company goes public, boosts Sacramento’s semiconductor corridor
When an El Dorado Hills tech company went public earlier this year, it pushed the region closer to a goal held by some Sacramento-area civic boosters.
In a region that has relied upon the state government’s presence for economic stability, the chip industry has become a new focus for officials looking to draw jobs and investment here. They point to a “corridor” of semiconductor companies stretching northwest from Sacramento.
The business of chipmaking “has a chance to be a major driver of our economic sustainability,” said Barry Broome, president and CEO of Greater Sacramento Economic Council.
In an interview last month, Rep. Doris Matsui also pointed to the chip industry as an economic driver for the area. Companies like Solidigm and Bosch, she said, are making bets on the Sacramento region.
“They are willing to invest here,” she said. “That’s kind of the new generation.”
When El Dorado Hills-based Blaize announced plans to go public, Broome cast the move as another sign of Sacramento’s credibility. Dinakar Munagala, co-founder and CEO of Blaize, described his company’s technology as “the brain behind cameras,” powering systems that analyze traffic patterns or detect suspicious behavior in airports. The company’s target customers include the defense industry, so-called “smart cities” and carmakers.
“I think having Blaize emerge here — alongside these significant companies — we can start to give proof that you can build a really strong semiconductor corridor in this region,” Broome said
Leaving Intel
Munagala spent his early career at Intel’s campus in Folsom, which he described as a “great university,” for tech workers. He was on a fast-moving team working on graphics cards, typically built at 18-month intervals.
“It was like a startup within Intel,” he said. “You learn how to do things faster.”
In 2010, he and a couple of his coworkers left Intel to found their own business. They spent their early years in “garage mode,” working out of a spare bedroom in Munagala’s house, trying to build a simulator of the technology.
Then they received some angel capital. Then Denso, which makes components for Toyota, invested. Other companies followed, and Blaize began to grow.
In January Blaize went public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, called BurTech Acquisition Corp.
As a method of going public, SPACs have fallen out of favor with investors over the past few years after some companies failed to live up to expectations and the practice began to receive more attention from regulators. Munagala acknowledged that, but explained that in his view Blaize avoided the usual pitfalls: It kept its valuation modest, and gave reasonable guidance around expected future revenues.
“(The) SPAC is like a moment in time,” he said. “What really follows afterwards is how we’re committed to building the company.”
He believes Blaize will gain an advantage from the growing political pressure to build chips on U.S. soil. Blaize’s are built in a Samsung foundry in Austin, Texas, a decision the company made before discussions escalated around overseas chip manufacturing.
“It’s just turned out to be good fortune that we already have products that are built here,” Munagala said.
Munagala is confident in Blaize’s strategy, which, he said, is designed around making chips more adaptable and flexible for rapid changes in the AI industry.
When people first started making graphics cards for gaming, Munagala said, most of the companies didn’t last. The few that still exist today bet on programmability, and designing their technology to be adaptable.
“The same will happen in AI,” Munagala said. “Companies like Blaize, who bet on programmability, will survive. Others will die.”
Keeping talent here
The Intel campus where Munagala spent 11 years of his early career, exposing him to the ins and outs of the industry, has been steadily shrinking.
The company cut nearly 790 jobs in Folsom in 2023, and in August announced plans to trim more than 15% of its global workforce. In November the company said it would sell the real estate of the Folsom campus and lease back just a portion.
The Sacramento region needs to work to keep former Intel employees like Munagala in the market, said Broome, the economic council head.
Blaize is based in El Dorado Hills, and its founding team is local, Munagala said. The company has about 20 employees here and another 20 in San Jose, covering administrative roles like sales, IT, finance and marketing.
“Customers are there, investors are there, so we have to be between both places,” he said.
Blaize has 10 or 15 data science employees in North Carolina, 40 in the U.K. working on design and automotive chips, a small sales team in the United Arab Emirates and about 115 design and engineering workers in India.
Sacramento, Munagala said, is a well-kept secret, a couple of hours from ski resorts and from wine country. That was part of the pitch he received when he first joined Intel, he said, and remains true today. And now it is growing as a site for tech companies.
The so-called “corridor” of semiconductor companies now stretches from Rancho Cordova, which Solidigm selected for its global headquarters in 2023, to Folsom, where Intel and Samsung each have a presence, to the former TSI Semiconductors site in Roseville, acquired by Bosch in 2023.
“It’s unfortunate to see Intel where it is,” Munagala said. But, he added, “I think as all these companies grow in the region, the talent will definitely be absorbed.”
