(Reuters) – Silicon Valley-based artificial intelligence chip startup d-Matrix has secured $110 million in funding from investors, including Microsoft Corp, at a time when many chip companies are struggling to raise cash.
Sources interviewed by Reuters revealed that potential investors in some startups have been deterred by Nvidia’s dominant position in the AI chip market. Nvidia’s strong hold on the market is attributed to a powerful combination of hardware and software. Nvidia declined to comment on the matter.
The Series B funding round was led by Singapore-based Temasek and involved participation from Playground Global, a venture firm based in Palo Alto, California, as well as Microsoft.
d-Matrix CEO Sid Sheth said, “This is capital that understands what it takes to build a semiconductor business. They’ve done it in the past. This is capital that can stay with us for the long term.”
The Santa Clara-based company began its fundraising process approximately a year ago, according to Sheth. The exact valuation was not disclosed, but d-Matrix has previously raised $44 million.
d-Matrix specializes in designing chips optimized for generative AI applications, such as ChatGPT. Their chip designs utilize digital “in-memory compute” technology, which enhances the efficiency of AI computer code execution. By using less energy to process the required data, d-Matrix’s chip technology is ideal for generating AI responses and is optimized for such tasks.
d-Matrix distinguishes itself from Nvidia by focusing on the “inference” part of AI processing, avoiding direct competition with Nvidia’s technology for training large AI models.
“We have solved the computer architecture,” said Sasha Ostojic, partner at Playground. “We have solved the low power requirements and the needs of a data center – (we) built a software stack to deliver the lowest latency in the industry by orders of magnitude.”
Microsoft has committed to evaluating d-Matrix’s chip for its own use upon its launch next year, as per Sheth’s statement to Reuters.
d-Matrix forecasts revenue of under $10 million this year, primarily from customers purchasing chips for evaluation purposes. Sheth anticipates generating annual revenue of $70 million to $75 million within two years, reaching break-even point.
(Reporting by Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Stephen Coates)
Credit: The Star : Tech Feed
