Chipmaker Renesas sues rival Navitas for stealing trade secrets

July 22 (Reuters) - Japan's Renesas 6723.T sued rival chipmaker Navitas NVTS.O in California federal court on Wednesday, claiming the company poached its employees to steal trade secrets for developing next-generation semiconductor chips that power AI data centers.

Renesas alleged in its lawsuit that California-based Navitas' CEO Christopher Allexandre and executive Felicia Cheng stole confidential Renesas information for Navitas related to gallium nitride (GaN)-based chips, which it said are "rapidly replacing" silicon chips in data centers.

"Within a short period of time after Allexandre assumed the role of CEO, Navitas announced a new '2.0' strategy that directly mirrored Renesas’s confidential plans — targeting the same customers, the same technologies, and the same market opportunities reflected in the stolen materials," Renesas said in its complaint.

Spokespeople for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the complaint.

The complaint said that Allexandre and Cheng took confidential PowerPoint presentations to Navitas that contained Renesas trade secrets.

"Any Renesas competitor (like Navitas) could use the information in these presentations to engineer the same secret product specifications Renesas has designed, knowing Renesas’s timelines, to beat Renesas to market to steal billion-dollar contracts," the lawsuit said.

Renesas said the global market for GaN chips is expected to grow from $355 million in 2024 to $3 billion by 2030, largely powered by the rapid growth of AI-powered technology.

Renesas asked the court for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and an order blocking Navitas from misusing its secrets.

The case is Renesas Electronics Corp v. Navitas Semiconductor USA Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 5:26-cv-07573.