There's an Italian company that, every time you turn on a smartphone, a computer, or a modern car, has already done its job—quietly, with precision, in the shadow of the big names in technology. It's called Technoprobe, and it was founded in a garage in the province of Lecco. Today, it's the world's leading manufacturer of probe cards, which test chips before they reach the devices we use every day. Clients include Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Intel, and TSMC.
This week, the Technoprobe team, composed of Giuseppe Crippa, Roberto Crippa, Stefano Felici, Riccardo Vettori, Raffaele Vallauri and Flavio Maggioni, was selected among the three finalists in the “Industry” category of the European Inventor Award 2026, Europe's most prestigious prize for technological innovation, awarded by the European Patent Office. The winners' announcement ceremony will be held in Berlin this year.
A story that begins after retirement
The story of Technoprobe is, first and foremost, the story of Giuseppe Crippa—an entrepreneur born in Robbiate, in the province of Lecco, in 1935, and who passed away in July 2025 at the age of 90. A story that seems like something out of a movie.
After more than thirty years at STMicroelectronics, where he traveled the world working on semiconductors—even reaching Silicon Valley in the 60s to study chip technology—Crippa retired in 1995. And instead of resting, he invested his severance pay in an idea he had been nurturing for years.
As early as 1989, in the garage and attic of his home in Merate, together with his eldest son Cristiano and the administrative assistance of his wife Mariarosa, he had begun building probes to test chips. The idea was simple yet brilliant: at the time, probe cards were produced almost exclusively in the United States, and European companies had to ship the equipment overseas for repairs—with weeks of waiting and enormous costs. “To repair a probe card, you had to send it to America. It took two weeks,” his grandson Stefano Felici, now the company's CEO, told Forbes. “So Giuseppe devised a process to produce them in his kitchen.”
In 1996, with about ten employees, Technoprobe moved to a warehouse in Cernusco Lombardone. Thirty years later, it has approximately 3.300 employees worldwide, offices on three continents, over 600 patents, and revenues that exceeded €500 million in 2024. In 2022—at age 87—Crippa learned from the Forbes ranking that he had become a billionaire. "Money doesn't matter to me," he told Corriere della Sera.
A Silicon Valley in Brianza
By specific choice of the family, Technoprobe has always wanted to keep the heart of its design and production in Italy —in Cernusco Lombardone, near Merate—even when growth might have justified relocation. A rare example of Italian excellence in a sector where global competition is fierce.
A corner of Silicon Valley just outside Milan. Made in Italy, in the truest sense of the word.
