TLDR: Samsung-backed chipmaker Axelera AI is reportedly in discussions to raise over €150 million in new financing. This potential funding round follows their successful Series B round in 2024, which secured $68 million for the development of their Metis™ AI Processing Unit for edge devices.
Eindhoven-based Axelera AI, a prominent chipmaker supported by Samsung Electronics Co. and the European Union, is reportedly engaging in talks to secure more than €150 million (approximately $175 million) in a new financing round. This strategic move aligns with Europe’s broader objective to enhance its high-performance computing capabilities.
This reported fundraising effort comes after Axelera AI successfully closed an oversubscribed Series B funding round in June 2024, where the company raised $68 million. This brought their total capital raised to $120 million at that time. The Series B round was recognized as Europe’s largest oversubscribed funding in the fabless semiconductor sector.
Axelera AI specializes in developing AI acceleration hardware and software, with their flagship product being the Metis™ AI Processing Unit (AIPU). This ‘world’s most powerful AI chip for edge devices’ is designed to enable advanced computer vision and generative AI applications in various devices, including robots and drones. The Metis™ AI Platform, slated for full production in the second half of 2024, aims to deliver a 3-5x increase in efficiency and performance compared to existing alternatives.
Fabrizio Del Maffeo, co-founder and CEO at Axelera AI, has emphasized the critical role of computing in the AI era, stating, ‘The infrastructure always wins, there is no AI without computing.’ He also highlighted the company’s focus on addressing challenges such as the ‘memory wall’ and power consumption through its proprietary digital in-memory computing and RISC-V technology. This approach minimizes data movement, leading to high computing performance at a fraction of the cost and energy consumption of centralized AI processing units.
The previous funding round saw participation from institutional investors including the Samsung Catalyst Fund, European Innovation Council Fund, Innovation Industries Strategic Partnership Fund, and Invest-NL. Existing investors such as Verve Ventures, Innovation Industries, Fractionelera, and the Italian sovereign fund CDP Venture Capital SGR also contributed. Marco Chisari, Head of Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Center and Executive Vice President, Samsung Electronics, expressed strong support for Axelera AI, commending their innovative use of digital in-memory computing.
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Axelera AI, founded in 2021, has rapidly expanded its team to over 180 professionals with diverse backgrounds from leading tech companies like IBM, IMEC, and Intel. The company’s global expansion strategy targets growth opportunities in key vertical markets such as automotive, digital healthcare, Industry 4.0, retail, robotics, drones, and surveillance, with a particular focus on North America, Europe, and the Middle East. The company also plans to extend its product offerings from edge devices to data centers to meet the growing demands of generative AI and large language models.
