It's actually a little confusing (or perhaps deliberately obscure) what the true relationship is.
I think we are both a 'customer" of sorts, but also a partner, the ecosystem way similar to Arm and IFS.
BrainChip Receives Akida Chips from Socionext America
"The chips were manufactured at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) from a production mask set provided in May 2021. This mask set follows the successful production of engineering samples from the Company’s Multi-Project Wafers (MPW), received in August of 2020, and the subsequent delivery of evaluation boards."
"[Socionext America] supported all assembly and test operations for the Akida devices, including a review of the TSMC Process Control Monitoring (PCM) data, assembly, device electrical testing, and simulation correlation."
BrainChip and Socionext Provide a New Low-Power Artificial Intelligence Platform for AI Edge Applications
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Socionext Inc., a leader in advanced SoC solutions for video and imaging systems, will offer customers an Artificial Intelligence Platform that includes the Akida SoC, an ultra-low power high performance AI technology."