Observed Signal · Apr 11, 2026 · Funding · Source: techcrunch · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
SiFive Raises $400M, Valued at $3.65B Backed by Nvidia
SiFive, founded in 2015 by UC Berkeley engineers behind an open-source chip design, closed an oversubscribed $400 million funding round that values the company at $3.65 billion. The round was led by Atreides Management (founded by Gavin Baker) and included investors such as Nvidia, Apollo Global Management, D1 Capital Partners, Point72 Turion, T. Rowe Price, and Sutter Hill Ventures. SiFive licenses RISC-V CPU designs rather than manufacturing chips and is positioning those open designs for CPUs in AI data centers; its designs are intended to interoperate with Nvidia's CUDA software and NVLink Fusion rack systems. The company previously raised $175 million in March 2022 led by Coatue Management at a $2.33 billion pre-money valuation.
Significant AI-infrastructure funding and Nvidia participation signal growing interest in open RISC-V CPU designs for data-center AI inference, which could diversify hardware options and affect AI infrastructure economics and vendor dynamics relevant to the broader tech ecosystem.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- SiFive raised an oversubscribed $400 million funding round valuing the company at $3.65 billion.
- Nvidia participated in the financing; the round was led by Atreides Management (founded by Gavin Baker).
- Other investors include Apollo Global Management, D1 Capital Partners, Point72 Turion, T. Rowe Price, and Sutter Hill Ventures.
- SiFive licenses RISC-V open chip designs rather than selling manufactured chips and is moving into CPUs for AI data centers.
- SiFive previously raised $175 million in March 2022 led by Coatue Management at a pre-money valuation of $2.33 billion, with participants including Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, and Aramco Ventures.
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SiMa AI raises $150M at $1.45B valuation
SiMa.ai, a startup developing energy-efficient chips and software for edge AI applications, has raised $150 million in Series C funding, bringing its valuation to $1.45 billion. The round was co-led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Amplify, with participation from Alter Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, and StepStone Group. Founded in 2018 by Krishna Rangasayee, former COO of Groq, SiMa.ai focuses on enabling robots, drones, cameras, and other devices to run AI directly on-device, reducing reliance on cloud data exchange. The company positions its low-latency, more affordable chips as alternatives to Nvidia's GPUs. Total funding now exceeds $500 million. The startup was previously valued at $960 million after its $85 million Series B in July 2025.
Cognichip Raises $60M to Use AI to Design Chips
Cognichip is developing a deep-learning system to assist engineers in designing semiconductor chips, aiming to shorten multi-year design cycles and reduce development costs. The startup, which emerged from stealth in 2025, said it raised $60 million in a new funding round led by Seligman Ventures; Intel CEO Lip‑Bu Tan participated and will join Cognichip’s board, and Umesh Padval (Seligman) will also join the board. Cognichip says its advantage is a domain-specific model trained on chip‑design data (including synthetic and licensed datasets) and secure procedures to let partners train on proprietary data. The company claims it can cut chip development costs by >75% and timelines by >50% but has not yet produced a chip designed end-to-end by its system and did not name customers. It has demoed the model with students using the open RISC‑V architecture and competes with incumbents like Synopsys and Cadence and startups such as ChipAgents and Ricursive.
Firmus Raises $505M, Reaches $5.5B Valuation
Singapore-based data-center provider Firmus announced a $505 million funding round led by Coatue at a $5.5 billion post-money valuation. The company says it has raised $1.35 billion in the past six months. Firmus is building an energy-efficient AI data center network called Project Southgate across Australia and Tasmania, using Nvidia reference designs and planning to deploy Nvidia’s next-gen Vera Rubin platform (successor to Blackwell), expected to ship in H2 2026. The firm originally supplied cooling technologies for Bitcoin mining and has pivoted from crypto-related infrastructure into AI-focused data centers, attracting investor interest including prior backing from Nvidia.
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