At 55, a former Apple and Amazon chip engineer launched an AI startup — and he says age is an advantage

Stephen Huang spent decades designing chips in Silicon Valley before ChatGPT convinced him the market was finally ready for the AI chip company he had long dreamed of building.

Huang's career spanned roles at MediaTek, where he worked on GPUs; Apple, where he contributed to Face ID; and Amazon, where he was part of the AI chip team. When ChatGPT exploded onto the scene in late 2022, he saw a clear inflection point. “I felt the market had arrived,” he told Business Insider.

At 55, he decided to start over. In 2024, he founded Tranxform AI, a Taiwan-based startup developing power-efficient processors designed to run AI models outside massive data centers — at the edge, closer to where data is generated. The company now employs about 40 people and expects to tape out its first chip next year.

Huang is among a growing wave of entrepreneurs chasing opportunities in the AI hardware boom. Unlike many founders building software around large language models, he brings decades of hands-on chip design experience. And he doesn’t see his age as a drawback. “Morris Chang started TSMC in his 50s,” Huang said, referring to the legendary foundry founder who was 55 when he created the world's largest contract chipmaker.

In fact, Huang argues that hardware startups reward experience more than software startups do. Semiconductor design is a long game. Building a system-on-a-chip — the integrated processor powering everything from smartphones to AI servers — requires balancing tradeoffs across hardware and software, a skill that takes years to master. “To build a good SoC, you need experience,” he said. “Otherwise, you would not know how to balance different operations.”

Huang’s leap was far from obvious. Before Tranxform, he had a stable career and comfortable income in the U.S. Founding the company meant taking a big risk and spending most of his time in Taiwan — a decision his family initially struggled with. As the startup hit key milestones, their attitude shifted. “Today, they are proud of what we have accomplished,” he said. Timing also helped: his two sons are adults, one working in tech, the other recently graduated. “Having them become independent has made it easier for me to dedicate the time and energy needed to build Tranxform,” he added.

Huang believes the bet is worth it because demand for specialized AI hardware will keep rising as companies seek faster, more energy-efficient ways to run increasingly complex models. Investors appear to agree. Venture funding for AI and machine-learning chip startups surged more than 70% to $16.2 billion in 2025 from a year earlier, according to PitchBook. The number of deals, however, fell to 232 from 266 as investors wrote bigger checks to a smaller pool of potential winners. As of June 22 this year, funding stood at $9.9 billion across 87 deals.

While the AI boom drew Huang toward entrepreneurship, Silicon Valley’s talent wars pushed him to build his company elsewhere. His years in the Valley taught him how hard it is for startups to compete with giants like Google, Apple and Nvidia for engineers. “We kept training people, and they got poached,” he said. So he built Tranxform in the Taiwanese chip hub of Hsinchu, where he believed he could assemble a more stable engineering team. One of his first key hires was Way-Shing Lee, his college classmate and a retired Qualcomm veteran, who joined as chief technology officer last year.

Now, startup life has replaced stability with fundraising calls, recruiting meetings, customer pitches and constant technical problem-solving. “Starting a company is very hard,” Huang said. “You have to find business partners. You have to sell your story. You have to find funding.” Tranxform is preparing for its next funding round, though Huang declined to share details. The company is still in early licensing stages and generates little revenue. Still, he believes the biggest opportunities in AI lie ahead. “The industry is probably just getting started,” he said.

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