TLDR: Rivos, an AI-focused semiconductor startup backed by Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger, is seeking to raise between $400 million and $500 million in new funding. This significant capital injection aims to accelerate the development of its GPUs, positioning the company as a direct challenger to Nvidia in the burgeoning AI chip market. If successful, this round would elevate Rivos’s total funding to nearly $900 million since its 2021 inception, pushing its valuation past $2 billion as it targets mass production by 2026.
Santa Clara, California-based Rivos, an emerging force in the AI semiconductor landscape, is reportedly in the process of securing a substantial new funding round, targeting between $400 million and $500 million. This ambitious fundraising initiative is designed to bolster the company’s efforts in developing advanced Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) specifically tailored for artificial intelligence workloads, directly challenging the market dominance of Nvidia.
Backed by prominent figures including Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger, who also serves as a pivotal investor and founding chairman of Rivos, the startup has rapidly gained traction. Should this latest funding round close successfully, Rivos’s total capital raised since its establishment in 2021 would approach $900 million, propelling its valuation beyond $2 billion. The company has set an aggressive timeline, aiming to commence mass production of its chips by 2026, with prototype chips already delivered to TSMC for trial production earlier this year.
Rivos specializes in designing GPUs optimized for AI inference—the crucial stage where trained AI models execute tasks. This focus is strategic, as inference workloads are projected to constitute a significant 60% to 70% of all AI tasks by 2030. The company is developing server solutions based on the energy-efficient, high-performance, and secure RISC-V architecture.
Prior to this current fundraising push, Rivos successfully completed a $250 million funding round last year. Puneet Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Rivos, has articulated the company’s strategic vision, noting that Nvidia’s current offerings might be ‘overly redundant for smaller deployment scenarios.’ Kumar views these smaller deployments as a key strategic market opportunity for Rivos.
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Founded by Kumar in 2021, Rivos has attracted a diverse group of notable investors, including Intel Capital, MediaTek, Dell Technologies, BlackRock, and Walden Catalyst. The company also navigated a legal dispute with Apple, which accused Rivos of trade secret theft in 2021. Rivos counter-sued, alleging illegal threats against its employees, with the matter ultimately settled in early 2024, clearing the path for the company to focus on its core mission of AI chip innovation.
