Maxwell Labs
Pioneering photonic cooling technology to extract heat directly from chips for AI and high-performance computing.
Website: https://mxllabs.com/
Cover Block
From the public record
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Maxwell Labs |
| Tagline | Pioneering photonic cooling technology to extract heat directly from chips for AI and high-performance computing [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026] |
| Headquarters | St. Paul, United States [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] |
| Founded | 2019 [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] |
| Stage | Series A [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] |
| Business model | Hardware + Software |
| Industry | Deeptech |
| Technology type | Hardware |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding team | Co-Founders (3+) [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] |
| Funding label | Series A |
| Total disclosed | ~$10,734,480 [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] [intelligence360, retrieved 2026] |
Links
From the public record
- Website: https://mxllabs.com/
The Short Version
PUBLIC Maxwell Labs is a St. Paul deep-tech startup building photonic cooling systems that aim to pull heat directly out of chips with light, a proposition that has become more relevant as AI and high-performance computing workloads push conventional thermal management toward tighter power and water constraints [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026] [Star Tribune, November 2025] [HPCwire, November 2024]. The company was founded in 2019, and public reporting ties the founding team of Jacob Balma, Mike Karpe, and Alejandro Rodriguez to a thesis that chip performance is increasingly capped by heat rather than compute architecture alone [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] [Star Tribune, November 2025] [SID Upper Midwest Chapter, September 2024].
The product story is early but differentiated: Maxwell says its photonic cooling uses a waveguide network and laser-based approach to cool localized hotspots on-chip without pumps, pipes, or liquid loops, and it publicly launched the MXL-Gen1 Early Access Program at SC24 in November 2024 [HPCwire, November 2024] [Accesswire, November 2024] [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026]. That matters because the company is not trying to compete as a general data-center cooling vendor; the public materials point instead to a chip-level thermal-control layer for AI hardware and HPC systems, with commercialization still at the access-program stage rather than broad deployment [HPCwire, November 2024] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025].
The team's relevant edge appears technical first. Balma is publicly identified as co-founder and CEO, Rodriguez as co-founder and CTO, and Karpe as co-founder and chief growth officer, while outside coverage and presentation materials place the company in active collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico on demonstration work for laser-based chip cooling [Jacob Balma - LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] [SID Upper Midwest Chapter, September 2024] [Star Tribune, November 2025] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025].
Funding is directionally supportive, though the public record is not fully clean. Star Tribune reported $4.5 million raised by November 2025 plus a $500,000 government-linked award, while Twin Cities Business reported that Maxwell had closed a $5.2 million Series A by April 2026; separate SEC-related reporting pointed to a Form D offering of $10.734 million with $7.93 million reportedly raised as of February 27, 2026 [Star Tribune, November 2025] [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] [intelligence360, retrieved 2026]. The business model is best read as hardware plus software today, with public references to early-access and pre-licensing activity rather than proven scaled revenue, despite third-party database estimates on revenue that remain unverified [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026] [Datanyze, retrieved 2026].
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the central questions are whether Maxwell can translate technical credibility into verified customer adoption, whether its solid-state photonic approach performs outside lab and pilot settings, and whether the company can close the gap between promising thermal physics and a repeatable commercial integration path for AI and HPC hardware buyers [HPCwire, November 2024] [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025].
Single-source, plausible -- Section relies on named public publishers for company, team, launch, and funding context, but several product-performance and commercialization claims remain company-sourced or only partially corroborated.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Series A |
| Business Model | Hardware + Software |
| Industry / Vertical | Deeptech |
| Technology Type | Hardware |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (3+) |
| Funding | Total disclosed approximately $10,734,480 |
The Company in Brief
PUBLIC
Maxwell Labs presents itself as a St. Paul deep-tech company focused on photonic cooling, a hardware approach that uses laser light to extract heat directly from chips for AI and high-performance computing workloads [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026]. Crunchbase lists the company as founded in 2019 and headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]. Public materials do not add much legal-entity detail beyond the company name used across its website and profiles, so the cleaner read is that the public record is still weighted toward technology positioning rather than corporate disclosure [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026] [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026].
The visible company timeline is short but coherent. Maxwell Labs publicly introduced its MXL-Gen1 Photonic Cooling Early Access Program in November 2024, which marks the clearest product milestone in the public record and suggests the company had moved from research framing into structured external engagement by that point [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026]. On the financing side, Crunchbase identifies Maxwell Labs as a venture-backed company with investor participation that includes Arosa Ventures, Best Start, mHUB, gBETA IIoT, and Topping Capital, although round-by-round chronology on database entries appears less consistent than the company's own product timeline [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026].
Single-source, plausible -- Confirmed by company website and Crunchbase, but several material chronology details remain limited to company profile disclosures rather than independent public filings.
What They Have Built
MIXED
Maxwell Labs is making a specific technical bet: chip cooling can be handled at the hotspot itself, with light, rather than by pushing more liquid or air through the system. Public materials describe the core platform as a photonic cooling approach that uses laser light to extract heat directly from chips, with the company framing this as a way to address AI and high-performance computing workloads that are running into thermal limits [Maxwell Labs] [HPCwire, November 2024]. In coverage by IEEE Spectrum and Laser Focus World, the mechanism is described as converting heat into light and targeting localized regions on the chip, while Sandia Lab News says the system is intended to cool hotspots on the order of hundreds of microns [IEEE Spectrum] [Laser Focus World] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025].
The most concrete product surface disclosed publicly is the MXL-Gen1 Photonic Cooling Early Access Program, which Maxwell introduced at SC24 in November 2024 for AI hardware and HPC systems [Accesswire, November 2024] [HPCwire, November 2024]. Company materials and press coverage consistently describe the system as solid-state, without pumps, pipes, or coolant loops, and as a localized complement or potential alternative to conventional water- and air-based thermal management [Maxwell Labs] [Laser Focus World]. Some of the stronger performance claims, including 1,000 W/mm² heat flux and real-time laser steering to shifting hotspots, currently rest on company materials rather than independent benchmarking, so they are best read as technical assertions rather than verified field performance [Maxwell Labs].
A second signal worth watching is that the technology has moved beyond pure concept-stage messaging into institutional research work. Sandia National Laboratories said in April 2025 that it entered a cooperative research and development agreement with Maxwell Labs and the University of New Mexico to demonstrate laser-based photonic cooling for computer chips, with Maxwell providing technical designs, Sandia fabricating gallium arsenide-based devices, and the university evaluating thermal performance [Sandia Lab News, April 2025] [Optics & Photonics News, April 2025]. That does not establish commercial readiness, but it does suggest the underlying physics is being tested in a more formal setting than a website prototype description alone.
Single-source, plausible -- Core product positioning is corroborated by Maxwell Labs, HPCwire, Accesswire, Sandia Lab News, and Optics & Photonics News, but key performance claims still rely materially on company-authored materials.
Market Size and Demand
PUBLIC
The market matters now because AI and high-performance computing are pushing chip power density faster than conventional cooling architectures are improving, which turns thermal management from an efficiency issue into a system-level bottleneck for compute growth [HPCwire, November 2024] [Star Tribune, November 2025].
Public evidence on Maxwell Labs' exact addressable market is thin, so the cleanest way to frame demand is through the workloads and buyers already cited around the company rather than through unsupported TAM arithmetic. The named demand centers are AI hardware and HPC systems, with likely initial buyers described as data-center operators, hardware integrators, AI-system developers, and high-performance-computing users [HPCwire, November 2024] [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. That lines up with Maxwell's own go-to-market signal, an MXL-Gen1 Early Access Program launched at SC24 in November 2024, which places the product discussion inside advanced compute infrastructure rather than general-purpose thermal management [Accesswire, November 2024] [HPCwire, November 2024].
The practical tailwind is that the problem Maxwell is targeting appears to be becoming more localized, not less. Maxwell's public materials describe chip-level hotspot cooling without pumps, pipes, or coolant loops, while third-party coverage from Sandia Lab News and Laser Focus World points to cooling targets at the scale of hundreds of microns and to a light-based cold plate meant to replace or supplement water- and air-based systems [Maxwell Labs] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025] [Laser Focus World]. Read conservatively, that suggests Maxwell is not competing for all thermal budgets in the data center at once. It is aiming at the highest-value thermal constraints, where hotspot management and performance preservation may justify a new architecture.
The nearest adjacent markets are established cooling categories that already absorb budget in advanced compute stacks. Those substitutes include air cooling, liquid cooling, cold plates, thermal-interface materials, dissipative coatings, and radiative heatsink structures, several of which Maxwell itself has referenced as part of a broader product portfolio around the core photonic-cooling platform [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] [Maxwell Labs]. That matters because adoption need not start as a full rip-and-replace motion. Public descriptions from Laser Focus World say the company's light-based cold plate could potentially replace or assist water- or air-based cooling systems, which implies an insertion path as a complement before any wider displacement claim is proven [Laser Focus World].
Macro and policy signals are also relevant, though the public record supports only a measured conclusion. The Star Tribune tied Maxwell's pitch to reducing data-center energy and water use, and the company received a reported $500,000 award through a program involving the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, the University of St. Thomas, and Energetics Technology Center [Star Tribune, November 2025] [Twin Cities Business, April 2026]. Separate public research collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico adds another indicator that advanced thermal management is being taken seriously in national-lab and defense-adjacent contexts, even if that does not yet establish procurement demand [Sandia Lab News, April 2025] [Optics & Photonics News, April 2025].
| Market lens | Public signal | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Core workload segment | AI hardware and HPC systems are the explicit target for the MXL-Gen1 Early Access Program [HPCwire, November 2024] [Accesswire, November 2024] | Positions Maxwell inside the fastest-growing compute-density environments rather than broad enterprise infrastructure |
| Initial buyer set | Data-center operators, hardware integrators, AI-system developers, and HPC users are identified as likely early buyers [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] | Suggests a complex sales motion across both component and system layers |
| Substitute spend pool | Air cooling, liquid cooling, cold plates, and thermal-interface materials remain the practical alternatives or adjacent categories [Laser Focus World] [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] | Implies the company can enter through augmentation of existing systems, not only full replacement |
| Policy and research support | Maxwell has a reported government-linked award and a Sandia-UNM CRADA-style research collaboration [Star Tribune, November 2025] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025] | External validation exists, but it is still research-oriented rather than proof of scaled commercial demand |
The picture from public sources is narrower than a standard market map, but it is coherent. Demand appears strongest where compute density, water constraints, and hotspot control converge, and weaker where incumbent air or liquid systems remain good enough. That is a credible entry market for a deep-tech cooling company, though the available public evidence does not support a bottom-up market size model yet.
Single-source, plausible -- Market framing is supported by named publisher coverage and company materials, but no independent third-party TAM report or verified commercial demand data was identified.
Who Else Is Fighting for This
MIXED Maxwell Labs is positioned less against a single named startup rival than against the installed stack of air, liquid, and cold-plate cooling approaches that already serve AI and high-performance computing buyers, with its pitch centered on chip-level photonic cooling rather than facility-level heat management [HPCwire, November 2024] [Laser Focus World] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025].
The competitive map is easiest to read in layers. At the incumbent layer, the practical alternatives are conventional air and liquid cooling systems already embedded in data center and HPC infrastructure, including water-based loops and cold-plate architectures that buyers understand operationally [Laser Focus World] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025]. At the challenger layer, Maxwell Labs is asking customers to consider a different thermal-control mechanism altogether, one that it says uses laser light to extract heat directly from chips and target localized hot spots on the order of hundreds of microns [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025]. At the adjacent-substitute layer, hardware teams can also respond to thermal bottlenecks through chip design changes, thermal-interface materials, or broader system architecture tradeoffs rather than adopting a new cooling modality [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026].
What Maxwell appears to have today is technical distinctiveness and a credible early signal of ecosystem interest, not yet a visible channel advantage. The company publicly launched its MXL-Gen1 Photonic Cooling Early Access Program at SC24 in November 2024, aimed at AI hardware and HPC systems, which matters because it places the product in front of technical buyers before broad commercialization [HPCwire, November 2024] [Accesswire, November 2024]. Its cooperative research and development agreement with Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico adds some external validation to the underlying science, and the company has also highlighted work to strengthen its IP portfolio through LS3 Law Firm [Sandia Lab News] [Optics & Photonics News, April 2025] [Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026]. That edge could be durable if the core physics prove manufacturable and patentable at system level, but it is perishable if incumbents can absorb similar hotspot-cooling concepts into existing cold-plate or liquid architectures before Maxwell reaches production scale.
The company is most exposed where procurement discipline is highest. Data-center operators, hardware integrators, and AI-system developers can be interested in lower water use or higher thermal headroom, but they also tend to favor solutions with known reliability, integration paths, and service models, areas the public record does not yet show Maxwell has locked down through named deployments or commercial customers [Star Tribune, November 2025] [Twin Cities Business, April 2026]. That leaves established liquid-cooling and cold-plate suppliers with a practical advantage even if Maxwell's physics are differentiated, because incumbents already fit existing rack, facility, and OEM workflows [Laser Focus World]. The absence of named startup competitors in the available sources is itself informative: the near-term fight appears to be against incumbent methods and buyer inertia more than against a well-documented direct venture-backed peer set [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] [HPCwire, November 2024].
The most plausible 18-month scenario is a split outcome by buyer type rather than a clean category win. Maxwell Labs is the winner if hyperscale-adjacent AI hardware teams and HPC developers treat hotspot management as a chip-level problem worth testing through early-access and research partnerships, especially if the company can translate its SC24 launch and Sandia collaboration into reference designs or paid pilots [HPCwire, November 2024] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025]. Conventional liquid cooling is the winner if deployment risk, packaging complexity, or qualification timelines dominate purchase decisions, because buyers can continue upgrading known thermal systems without changing the underlying cooling paradigm [Laser Focus World] [Star Tribune, November 2025]. On the evidence available publicly, Maxwell's position is intriguing but still pre-standardization, which means competitive advantage depends less on claim strength than on proving integration and reliability before incumbents extend their own roadmaps.
Single-source, plausible -- Based primarily on company materials and named-publisher coverage, with no named direct competitors confirmed in the source set and several technology claims resting on Maxwell's own descriptions.
Opportunity
From the public record
If Maxwell Labs can make photonic cooling work outside the lab and into mainstream chip and system design, the prize is not a better thermal component but a new control point in AI and high-performance computing infrastructure, where cooling constraints increasingly shape compute density, energy use, and system economics [HPCwire, November 2024] [Star Tribune, November 2025] [Twin Cities Business, April 2026].
The clearest upside case is that Maxwell becomes the enabling layer for hotspot management in next-generation AI and HPC hardware, first as a specialized cooling subsystem and later as a design standard embedded into advanced compute platforms. That outcome is still conditional, but it is not purely aspirational on the public record. The company has already moved from concept description to a named early access program, MXL-Gen1, launched at SC24 in November 2024, which suggests an attempt to engage strategic customers before full commercialization rather than remaining in pure research mode [HPCwire, November 2024] [Accesswire, November 2024]. Public reporting also shows external technical validation in the form of a cooperative research and development agreement with Sandia National Laboratories and the University of New Mexico, with defined roles for fabrication and thermal evaluation, which is more substantive than a generic partnership announcement [Sandia Lab News, April 2025] [Optics & Photonics News, April 2025].
The commercial logic is straightforward. If AI accelerators and HPC chips continue to run into localized thermal bottlenecks, the vendor that can cool hotspots at the chip level without pumps, pipes, or water could matter well beyond its current size [Laser Focus World] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025]. Maxwell's own product framing is company-supplied and should be treated cautiously, but the broader pattern across public sources is consistent: the company is targeting heat density and thermal throttling as gating constraints for advanced compute, not selling a marginal efficiency tweak [Maxwell Labs] [IEEE Spectrum].
Growth scenarios
The upside splits into a few distinct paths, each tied to a different commercialization motion.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early access to design-in standard | Maxwell converts MXL-Gen1 early access relationships into multi-year design wins with AI hardware and HPC system builders, making photonic cooling part of next-generation module architecture | Successful early access program milestones and reproducible thermal results from strategic customers [HPCwire, November 2024] [Maxwell Labs] | The company has already publicly launched a structured Early Access Program aimed at AI hardware and HPC systems, which is the kind of motion usually used for deep integration products rather than transactional component sales [HPCwire, November 2024] [Accesswire, November 2024] |
| National lab validation to defense and infrastructure adoption | Maxwell's Sandia and university work yields externally validated performance data that supports procurement or co-development with government and critical-compute programs | Positive outputs from the Sandia, University of New Mexico, and Army-linked research relationships [Sandia Lab News, April 2025] [Star Tribune, November 2025] | The company already has a CRADA-linked effort with Sandia and has received a reported $500,000 award tied to the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory and academic partners, indicating early government relevance [Sandia Lab News, April 2025] [Star Tribune, November 2025] |
| Cooling platform licensing layer | Instead of building a large manufacturing footprint, Maxwell licenses photonic cooling IP, cold-plate designs, or reference architectures into larger semiconductor and thermal-management ecosystems | Demonstrated chip-level cooling performance and a stronger patent estate [Maxwell Labs] [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] | Maxwell has described an early access path with pre-licensing opportunities and has said it engaged LS3 Law Firm to strengthen its IP portfolio, which points to licensing as at least a plausible business model branch [Maxwell Labs] |
The scenarios above are different routes to the same prize: becoming part of the architecture stack that determines how much compute can be packed into a given system. The most attractive version is the first one, because design-in status with system builders tends to carry long product cycles, switching costs, and follow-on revenue opportunities, though the public record does not yet establish customer conversion [HPCwire, November 2024] [Twin Cities Business, April 2026].
What compounding looks like
If the company gets one meaningful win, compounding could come from integration depth rather than from a classic consumer-style network effect. A cooling technology that is validated on advanced chips can become harder to remove once it is designed into thermal packaging, control systems, and performance envelopes. That matters here because Maxwell is not only describing a material or a coating, but a chip-level photonic approach that may need close coordination with hardware designers and thermal engineers [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] [Laser Focus World].
The early signals of that flywheel are modest but visible. Maxwell has put a named Gen1 product into an early access structure, pursued outside technical collaborators, and continued fundraising through seed and Series A disclosures, all of which are consistent with a company trying to cross the gap from scientific novelty to product qualification [HPCwire, November 2024] [Star Tribune, November 2025] [Twin Cities Business, April 2026]. If those efforts produce credible performance data, the next layer of compounding would likely be stronger IP, more reference designs, and a broader set of OEM or lab relationships. None of that is proven yet, but it is the mechanism by which a small deep-tech supplier can become embedded in a much larger compute value chain [Maxwell Labs] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025].
The size of the win
Public sources in the provided record do not include a third-party market size study or a directly comparable public peer with a clearly cited valuation multiple, so any upside framing has to stay conditional. The concrete anchor available is strategic importance rather than a clean TAM figure: Maxwell is targeting AI and high-performance computing chips, and multiple public sources place the company at the intersection of compute density, water use, and thermal limits in data-center and accelerator environments [Star Tribune, November 2025] [HPCwire, November 2024] [Twin Cities Business, April 2026]. If the "design-in standard" scenario plays out, Maxwell could plausibly become a valuable infrastructure supplier or licensing target for a larger semiconductor, thermal-management, or compute-systems company, with enterprise value determined less by current revenue and more by whether its technology becomes hard to substitute in future high-density systems (scenario, not a forecast) [Twin Cities Business, April 2026] [Sandia Lab News, April 2025].
That is the essential upside case. The company does not need to own all of data-center cooling to create very large value. It needs to become indispensable at the hottest, most expensive part of the stack, the chip-level thermal bottleneck where conventional approaches may be least elegant and where a working alternative would carry strategic weight [Laser Focus World] [IEEE Spectrum].
Single-source, plausible -- This section relies on a mix of independent news coverage and company statements, with key commercialization implications still only partially corroborated by public sources.
Sources
From the public record
[Maxwell Labs, retrieved 2026] Maxwell Labs | Cooling at the Speed of Light™ | https://mxllabs.com/
[Twin Cities Business, April 2026] Startup Snapshot: Maxwell Labs | https://tcbmag.com/startup-snapshot-maxwell-labs/
[Star Tribune, November 2025] Minnesota startup wants to use lasers to reduce energy and water use by data centers | https://www.startribune.com/data-center-technology-lasers-cooling-water-energy-usage-maxwell-labs-groove-capital/601504933
[HPCwire, November 2024] Maxwell Labs Introduces MXL-Gen1 Photonic Cooling Early Access Program at SC24 | https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/maxwell-labs-introduces-mxl-gen1-photonic-cooling-early-access-program-at-sc24/
[SID Upper Midwest Chapter, September 2024] Maxwell Labs - Company Overview | https://www.sid.org/Portals/sid/Upper%20MidWest%20Chapter/PDF%20and%20Images/Maxwell%20Labs%20-%20Company%20Overview%20-%20SID%209-03-2024.pdf
[Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] Maxwell Labs - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/maxwell-labs
[Jacob Balma - LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Jacob Balma - Co-Founder & CEO Maxwell Labs Inc | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-balma-86b263123
[Accesswire, November 2024] Maxwell Labs Introduces MXL-Gen1 Photonic Cooling Early Access Program at SC24 | https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/maxwell-labs-introduces-mxl-gen1-photonic-cooling-early-access-program-at-sc24/
[Sandia Lab News, April 2025] Exploring ways to cool computers with lasers | https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/laser_cooling/
[Datanyze, retrieved 2026] Maxwell Labs Revenue and Competitors | https://www.datanyze.com/companies/maxwell-labs/1346008401
[IEEE Spectrum, retrieved 2026] Laser Precision: Cooling Chips With Photonics | https://spectrum.ieee.org/laser-cooling-chips-photonics
[Laser Focus World, retrieved 2026] Light-based cold plate could cool AI chips | https://www.laserfocusworld.com/lasers-sources/article/55282291/light-based-cold-plate-could-cool-ai-chips
[Optics & Photonics News, April 2025] Sandia collaborates on laser-based chip cooling | https://www.optica-opn.org/home/newsroom/2025/april/sandia_collaborates_on_laser-based_chip_cooling/
[intelligence360, retrieved 2026] Maxwell Labs is raising up to $10,734,480.00 in new funding, according to SEC filings | https://www.intelligence360.news/maxwell-labs-is-raising-10734480-00-in-new-funding/
[Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] Maxwell Labs research brief | https://www.perplexity.ai/
[Sandia Lab News] Exploring ways to cool computers with lasers | https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/laser_cooling/
Articles about Maxwell Labs
- Maxwell Labs Is Betting on Light to Cool the Hottest AI Chips — The St. Paul deeptech startup, now in a formal R&D agreement with Sandia National Labs, is recruiting strategic customers for its solid-state cooling platform.