Taiwanese founder Chou Ta-shun started Berlin-based NextGO Epi in 2025 with two German partners; the company makes gallium oxide epiwafers and claims to be Europe's only producer able to mass-produce 4-inch gallium oxide epiwafers at industrial quality, and it closed a €2 million pre-seed round in July 2026. Because power-semiconductor giants such as Infineon and Bosch do not yet have gallium oxide device lines, NextGO Epi currently pays foundries in Germany, the US and Taiwan to turn its epiwafers into devices for customers; Chou originally expected the market to open around 2030 but now expects foundries to take on gallium oxide devices by 2028 as AI power demand grows. The report notes that gallium oxide still lacks practical P-type doping and has lower thermal conductivity than silicon carbide, which Chou says can be worked around through device design and heterogeneous material bonding; he also says its 4.9 eV bandgap could theoretically yield device resistance one-fifth to one-tenth that of comparable SiC or GaN parts.