SemiWiki.com - Podcast EP369: How Aion Silicon Enables Next Generation Innovation with Oliver Jones

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Daniel is joined by Oliver Jones, CEO of Aion Silicon, a global semiconductor design and engineering company delivering custom silicon solutions for the AI age. He leads the company’s strategy and growth as it continuously helps technology companies bring advanced SoC designs to market from architecture through production,… Read More

Hello, my name is Daniel Nenny, founder of semi-Wiki, the Open Forum for Semiconductor Professionals. Welcome to the Semiconductor Insiders podcast series. My guest today is Oliver Jones, CEO of AI on Silicon, a global semiconductor design and engineering company delivering custom silicon solutions for the AI age. He leads the company's strategy and growth as it continuously helps technology companies bring advanced SOC designs to market from architecture through production across data center, automotive, and edge computing markets.

Ollie has built his career at the intersection of deep technology and commercial growth with more than two decades of leadership experience across the semiconductor, automotive technology, and advanced engineering sectors. Before becoming CEO of A-I-N-Silicon, he served as vice president of worldwide sales and marketing. He previously held senior commercial and business development roles at L-Ion Battery Startup, FTSC-100 Engineering Group, GKN Automotive, and in Motorsports, at Williams F1, working on the next generation technology and high performance engineering programs. He holds a master's of engineering from Imperial College of London and is an advisor

to Silicon Catalyst, the semiconductor industry's leading incubator. Welcome to the podcast, Ollie. Great to be here, Dan. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's nice to talk to you again. We've been friends for some years. We're just really interested in the ASIC business. It's been developing over many years. In my first book, I did a whole chapter on the ASIC business. I've been personally involved in the ASIC business. It's one of the most dynamic businesses in the semiconductor industry that I've experienced. But before we start talking about that, let's talk about you personally. What originally brought you to the semiconductor industry? Great question. Well, I guess I should start off by kind of introducing my interest because I

think that's a good way of explaining how I came to the semiconductor industry. So I guess if I look kind of back even to my childhood, I was always interested in technology. And it's kind of started with cars. It grew into computers. And I kind of dabbled a little bit in programming as a teenager. And I've always had a curiosity of wanting to know how things kind of work in real life. So that kind of interest in curiosity kind of turned into even more curiosity when it came to technology and specifically deep tech. So I chose to study engineering at Imperial College as you kindly introduced earlier.

And that was really to give me a strong foundation to be able to get a career, going to a career around technology. And so if we kind of think about how I ended up in semiconductors, I guess if I think about what's interesting out there, you know, you look over the last few decades and anything that's kind of interesting from a technology perspective, autonomous driving, cloud computing, AI, smartphones, none of those would exist without kind of relentless programs. of semiconductors. So that has always been a fascination for me in terms of their technology and kind of semiconductors was a natural interest because of that. And so when I got the chance to join the industry now a few years back, I kind of jumped at it. And, you know, I've had the privilege now of working in the industry now for a little while. And the thing I always talk to people about who are outside the industry, my friends, et cetera, is I always call this thing alien technology, which people kind of find funny. But for me, like the whole part about the fact that,

you know, modern chips have hundreds of billions of transistors in something the size of a fingernails absolutely fascinating to me. You know, the fact that we have now more transistors on a single chip, leading edge chip, than there are stars in our galaxy. I still am in awe of and I'm amazed that, you know, we can still, we can design a manufacturer at that level at all. So I'm really kind of proud of it, proud to be part of it. So that's really how I ended up in semiconductors and what's kind of interested me. That's a great story.

I appreciate the childhood connection. I've asked this of many people and that's generally how it works out with semiconductor people. But my father was a pilot, so I was all about aviation. But as I got into university, the technology behind aviation won me over. And I ended up in semiconductor's electrical engineering and computer science.

Similar story then. And I am a pilot, but it's the technology, behind things that really, really fascinate me. So tell me, what brought you to Sandrell initially and the ASIC business? Well, again, I'll give a bit of a backstory here. So in my earlier career, I've only ever worked in technology businesses and engineering businesses. And probably that's obvious from kind of the intro that I gave of how I ended up in

semiconductors of my interest. For me, building something exactly. Act, non-negotiable, spec, supporting new technologies has always been something that I wanted to kind of build my career around. So I've got examples back from earlier in my career. For example, I led the win of a piece of business which was to develop a fully bespoke active aerosystem for one of the major hypercar brands as part of my kind of automotive career.

And it was, you know, precision engineering and manufacture at the very edge of what was possible. to drive an unprecedented level of performance at the vehicle level. And then another company led the win of the first fully integrated electric drive system for our company, which combined the power electronics and the software with the mechatronic parts of the design for a new EV platform for a vehicle manufacturer. So there's some parallels there between custom engineering delivery and billion dollar programs, of which that EV example was. And an ASIC, right?

So, you know, ASIC, as we know, is application-specific integrated circuit and a chip that's designed for one specific job and customized for that job, as opposed to being an after shelf part. And that's exactly what was Sondrell and is now ion silicon, it does, you know, it's at the heart of what we do. So I joined Sondrell in 2023, initially, as you again said, you in your intro,

to run sales and then sales and marketing. And at that point in my career, I was coming up to 20 years in engineering and technology businesses, across automotive energy, technology, consultancy, even F1, as you said, and various kind of sizes of businesses from big listed companies through to startup. So I kind of had a pretty clear idea of what I want to do next.

And I was looking for a role that combined that experience where I could really leverage that 20 years of experience. with a company that was deeply embedded into deep tech. It had a global footprint and a genuine, kind of in a genuine growth sector. And Sandra at the time ticked all of those boxes. It was, it's all about ASIC. So the design right at the heart of semiconductors. We, we had operations at the time across the UK, Morocco, India and US.

So it's truly global, which a strong emia presence and early momentum building in the US. and then all that backed up by over two decades of complex chip design legacy. So it felt like a really good place to go. And honestly, the other thing is I really like the team that I met when I first kind of was introduced to Sandra. And that matters to me almost as much as the other thing. So as I said, I joined to run sales and marketing. But about a year later, our major shareholder rocks asked me to step up to the CEO job.

And yeah, and here we are. Yeah, you know, I really appreciate that. You know, I was vice president of sales and marketing for a couple different companies. And I really felt that all CEOs should have to have vice president of sales and marketing experience because of the customer connection. And in the ASIC business, the customer connection is critical. So that's a great background. So let me ask you about Sondrell. So I've worked with Sondrell, you know, previously.

And Sondrell had 20 years of ASIC history with hundreds of tapeouts and billions probably of pieces out there. How did the engineering legacy influence the way you initially approached leading the company since you came in many years after their founding? Yeah, I think engineering legacy is kind of the operative part of this, really. So with two decades of chip design experience, always at the most advanced nodes at the time, what I didn't want to do coming in as the CEO was pull the company apart and change things that didn't need changing. So my first job was really to listen, learn and understand before acting. and I genuinely wanted to learn what needed to change and what didn't. What were the kind of key strengths that should be absolutely left intact?

And there were plenty of those. So hopefully I was realistic to know that, you know, I've been in the industry a relatively short time compared to many of the brilliant minds that we have in eye on and what was Sondrell. And so it was really important to me that I listened. and surrounded myself with those experts with the decades of hands-on experience. And I leaned really heavily on them to learn as quickly as I could how the industry works and how Sondrell and now Ion could best serve that industry. So there was some really solid track record points for the company.

One example is when I arrived, we had a client that had been a client for nearly a decade. and we'd been involved in advanced those projects continuously for them and they were a big blue chips and semi-company and we devolved with them we'd worked on you know seven nanometer down to five nanometer and then down to three nanometer designs across that decade through the different variants and and derivatives of chip that they were producing and that that kind of example shows that there's a sustained and a level of trust that that doesn't happen by accident so there were really good examples of things that were real strong for the business. And it has great track record. The company has taped out 18 chips at 7

nanometers and below in its history. And that's growing. But frankly speaking, the business was underperforming at the time. So listening was really important and moving fast was equally important. So they weren't mutually exclusive. So we did some things early on. So one of the things that I'm proud that we did was, and we did very deliberately, was to over-communicate with the team, with all of our engineers. And I, you know, I held with my senior leadership team, weekly all-hands meetings from the start of my, you know, my job as a CEO, where we would celebrate kind of small wins happening every day. We'd get the team excited about where we were headed as a company. And we kind of opened the floor to any question, invited any question, whatever

question anyone had and promised to answer as openly as possible. And the reason I raise it, is because, you know, the company had faced a period of instability, and it was really about rebuilding trust and a sense of stability, really, for the whole team. I'm proud that we managed to kind of keep some really important things, the engineering excellence, the Sondrell spirit, as I would call it, which kind of was a set of values that kind of knitted all of our teams together. I mentioned earlier that we, you know, we have offices dispersed around the world. And so it always felt like one company, not a set of disconnected design centres.

But there were some things that needed changing, Dan. And, you know, in my first six months, we rebuilt most of the leadership team. We raised investment. We restructured engineering to be leaner and accountable. We won major new contracts and we restructured the overhead. So, you know, we did that all at once. And it was a really tough time on a lot of people, you know, it was a lot of change. There was a lot of change fatigue, I would say, as well, during that time.

But, you know, our results in FY25, which we've released, we've recently released, showed that that really worked. You know, our revenue was up 50%, 50.4%, actually, year on year. We materially improved our EBITDA performance. We generated good cash and we strengthened the ballot sheet significantly. So all of that change and that difficulty that I went through, I think, was well worth it. And we're on a good, a really good path for growth now. Yeah, I mean, I definitely have to agree with you on that. We started working with Sandrell five years ago.

And, you know, I have a personal interest in the ASIC business because I spent some time there. And it's an amazing business, but it is very cyclical. You know, it's a difficult business. It's very competitive. And I remember when, you know, we talked about this when you were this vice president of marketing. And then we talked about it during what I called. call the pivot. So as you said, shortly after you took the CEO position, you engineered a pivot,

you know, you changed the company name to Aon Silicon, which is a very bold move, and you change the direction of the company. So I have an understanding of why you did it, but can you tell the listeners, why did you do that? Yeah, thank you for that question. Do you know what? Even before and while I joined Sondrell, I have to be honest, I really felt that the company and the brand undersold itself and that there was real capability hiding behind a brand that just wasn't doing the company justice and I felt very strongly about that. At the end of the day, we are in one of the most exciting industries on the planet, right? And I wanted the brand and the company name to say that, right? It's a dynamic and forward-looking industry. We're a dynamic and forward-looking

company, I wanted us to be more Silicon Valley and less, I guess, old school engineering firm. Let's put it that way. And so that was really what was behind this. The other thing was the timing was really mattered as well. I mentioned earlier some of the pivot that we made, some of the changes that we instigated in a very short period of time. We had new investors. We had new leadership. we had a restructure of business. And so the rebrand was, was timely really for us because it was a signal and a marker of that kind of forward intention

for the business and, you know, a signal that a new chapter had started. So the way we got the name, actually, Dan, was that we ran an internal competition. So we wanted everyone to kind of feel a part of, you know, the rebranding. So we asked all employees to, you know, to submit name suggestions for the company.

we actually had 114 different names that was submitted. Some of them better than others. Ion Silicon was actually a kind of mashup of two of the more serious contenders that we had through the employee suggestions. And I really like it. Ion works on a few levels, right? So first of all, it's Greek for eternity. It is shamelessly got the word AI in it. We are not shying away from that.

And also, you know, there's a play on words, I on. You know, I like the fact that that makes you think about, attention to detail and precision, which is absolutely what we're all about. So we launched the new name, the new branding in Q2 2025, so just over a year ago now. And we unveiled it to the whole company at an all-hands call first, which, and it was really satisfying actually to see the reactions flood in. You know, we had, like you do on teams and Zoom scores, you know, people can react with emoji. So we had emojis lighting up the screens when we unveiled the new branding.

And that was probably one of my favorite moments actually is as the CEO so far. people were super excited about it. Yeah, it was a it was a fun project to work on. Yeah, that's an excellent way to rebrand a company, getting buy-in from the employees. So I actually love the name. I remember we talked about this and I couldn't come up with anything, but I think it's brilliant. Thank you. So it's been about a year since you, you did it. And what have you learned since the rebranding and the pivot? the first thing I'd say is that it takes a bit of time for the new branding to land and the new name to land and stick you know so for for employees customers partners alike we you know we

we saw it take a little bit of time for them to get used to the new name although it didn't take that long right and when you start hearing ion silicon used in place of sondrell or people not using sondrel anymore and then apologising or whatever that was a great a great sign that you know the the new name and the branding had landed. But beyond that, we've seen several X times growth in our kind of inbound interest in terms of new business inquiries that we've seen, particularly in the US. And actually, I didn't mention it earlier, but, you know, we part of the specification or the requirements for the new branding was that we wanted it to be US-centric. We wanted it to, you know, to resonate with a with a US audience. And I think, I think we've achieved that. And, you know,

one thing that that kind of makes me smile actually is that I often get asked the question by customers or partners how do we how do we pronounce this is it ion is it a on is it a on is it a ion and um i actually quite like that we we have discussed that a lot internally and we we kind of you know wondered whether that was going to be an issue about anything but my answer is always you pronounce it however you want we really don't mind but actually quite like the fact that it generates the discussion because it somehow gets remembered that way. You know, it sticks in people's minds a bit. So kind of really, really pleased about that.

And you know, what else have we learned? Well, you know, of course, there's a kind of administrative overhead of rebranding the company and, you know, that there's lots of things that we need to do. Legal entity changes, letter heads, email domains, websites, documentation, all that kind of stuff. But the team's done a great job of migrating everything. And, and you know, as I mentioned earlier, the kind of tangible outcomes and the strength of the brands really has really improved, I think.

So, you know, and understandably, you know, when we did rebrand, we did have some kind of long-time colleagues felt a little bit of connection to the, to the Sondrell name after 20 years, and that's natural, and we respected it. But the business is fully looking forward now, and we are, we are I on Silicon. Yeah, I prefer the AI on Silicon pronunciation right now, but, you know, if we ever have an AI bust or something, then we'll probably call it on Silicon. Yeah, it's trying to be future-proofed as well, exactly. Yeah, for sure.

And, you know, you mentioned the exciting times in the semiconductor industry. You know, this is actually my 45th year in the semiconductor industry, or 40, you know, 45th. And it is more exciting now than it has ever been. And so, you know, I wrote a book, and I'm going to send you a copy. I wrote a book about the history of the fabulous transfer. and the ASIC business was a big part of that. And so I've documented it from the start to, you know, up to 10 years ago when the book was published.

And so I want you to just read that chapter and we can talk about this again, but, you know, see how it's changed over the last 10 years. I mean, it's just amazing. And so I have to ask you, in your mind, what does the future hold for Aeon Silicon and the ASIC business in general? Well, first of all, it would be fascinating to read that, Dan, to read that, Dan, so please do send it over to me and point me in the right direction of that chapter. I guess, you know, from my perspective, we're just getting started, Dan.

The advanced node ASIC space is becoming more and more important. We see compute moving at incredible pace and we're seeing it move out now to the edge, right? And more and more companies across more and more markets and sectors need custom silicon rather than off-the-shelf parts to really differentiate themselves and have the best products on the market. And we want to be the team they trust to build it. And that's kind of where we're, why I think we're, we're only just getting started. So we'll, you know, we'll keep growing in the US specifically. That's a huge share of the market as it is. It's, you know, where we see a big wave of the next kind of edge AI in custom silicon demand. We're building real momentum there in the US and

will continue to push hard there. And, you know, I mentioned it before, edge AI is, you know, it's a big, it's a big one for us. You know, we see AI workloads moving out of the data center and into cars, cameras, industrial equipment, satellites, you know, edge devices, edge compute. And, and all of these needs, you know, power efficient, purpose built, custom chips. And that's exactly what an A6 designed to do. And that's exactly where our strengths lie in, in, um, developing and providing that to our customers.

What else does the future hold? Well, we continue to deepen our partnerships across the ecosystem. You know, I've learned very quickly in this industry that the industry does not work without its ecosystem. And the ecosystem makes the industry stronger. And a big, you know, big believer in that, we embrace that very much. So, you know, we have our foundy partners. We have our IP partners.

We work with the tool vendors, et cetera, and we couldn't do our work without those partners. So, you know, continuing to partner is as important as being also a great engineering team. And so you'll see more of that from us. And I mentioned about our engineering team. We're continually investing in our people, investing heavily in our people, and we're developing our people. And we need to to stay on the curve of, you know, semiconductor advancement. and this industry lives and dies on talent, right? So building a team that are proud to be part of this industry and that are highly capable

and continuing to invest in that talent is absolutely key and will continue to do that. So, you know, if I kind of step back from it, you know, as I mentioned at the beginning, you know, I'm not, I'm saying, I'm saying something obvious, but semi-conductors underpin pretty much everything exciting happening in technology right now is it's as simple as that and i want ion silicon to be known as a company that's central to that story and we'll have fun doing it you know life's too short to work in a in a fascinating industry and not enjoy it so we'll we'll have some fun along the way so yeah you know our discussions centered a lot around the u.s market and how important it is and you hit it on the head that the staffing you know your talent is important and

you went out and you know use this pivot and you hired a top notch leadership for here in silicon valley i mean i know them and uh it's just amazing it's a it's a testament to how uh you know successful your pivot has been or will be and so i i think you know that that is really really excellent point you made and i'm really excited about this podcast series because you because the ASIC business is so important. And you guys are taking a fresh approach and I'm really, really invested in it. Thanks, Dan.

Yeah, I mean, I've got an amazing team. And we've handpicked that team. You know, Derek and Alan, who are on our exec team based in the Valley. And that was very deliberate. You know, we wanted to have our top execs, not only in the UK, but also with their finger on the pulse,

what's going on, which is the heart of everything is in Silicon Valley. So that was really important to us. So hopefully that's a signal that when I talk about investing in talent, I'm not just talking about it. We're really doing it. We've got a great team. And that puts us in a fantastic position going forward. Yeah, you absolutely did. So thank you for your time, Oli. And I'm looking forward to our next discussion. My pleasure, Dan. Thank you. That concludes our podcast. Thank you all for listening and have a great day.