TNO joins Dutch chip security company Fortaegis as partner and investor

Built-in chip security

Fortaegis’ technology can be used in both military and civilian settings. For example, securing communications for autonomous vehicles and drones, safeguarding AI workloads across data centers and protecting critical infrastructure such as telecom networks and energy grids. The company has developed a method that uses a chip’s unique physical “fingerprint” as the basis for security.

This concept leverages the minute and unavoidable imperfections inherent to the semiconductor manufacturing process, which render each chip physically unique. Because the security is built into the chip itself, the system offers significantly stronger protection and higher performance than traditional software-based solutions. The architecture eliminates the need to store cryptographic keys in databases, removing the primary target for hackers. Furthermore, secure connections are established without exchanging public keys, making the architecture inherently resistant to the threat of powerful quantum computers that can break traditional encryption.

Past collaboration and future plans

In the early stages of development, TNO contributed to the software foundations of Fortaegis’ security platform. TNO has since evaluated Fortaegis’ technology, including software testing to validate the chip’s performance. In addition to investing in the current funding round, TNO is entering into a long-term partnership with Fortaegis. The partnership will include application-level collaboration in areas such as federated learning and emerging network technologies, joint research through national and EU programs, and longer-term R&D projects.

Helping start-ups and scale-ups grow

TNO aims to build a strong network of companies in its focus areas and help start-ups and scale-ups grow faster. Through closer collaboration, TNO supports an ecosystem of potential customers and partners for the Dutch high-tech industry. Research shows that few deep-tech start-ups grow into scale-ups, and those that do often grow more slowly than their American counterparts. TNO wants to change this trend through targeted investments and partnerships. Earlier this year, TNO also announced an investment in quantum technology start-up Equal1.