Rivos ramps RISC-V with $250m raise
Cette publication existe aussi en Français
RISC-V startup Rivos has raised over $250m in an oversubscribed funding round to tap eout its first chips.
Despite a battle with Apple, the Series A-3 funding round saw participation from new investors including Intel Capital, MediaTek, Cambium Capital, CIDC, Capital TEN, and Hotung Venture Group.
The company is developing power optimized chips that combine high performance server-class RISC-V CPUs and a Data Parallel Accelerator, a general purpose GPU optimized for large language models (LLMs) and data analytics. The tight integration of CPU and parallel computation sharing a uniform memory across DDR DRAM and HBM memory matches the requirements of AI models and databases that need terabytes of memory.
Matrix Capital Management, the largest investor in this round, has joined the Board represented by Romit Shah. There was also increased participation from existing investors Walden Catalyst, Dell Technologies Capital, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and VentureTech Alliance.
The funding will enable the company to tape out its first silicon product and expand manufacturing, platform hardware, software engineering and support functions.
- Apple sues RISC-V startup Rivos for theft of trade secrets
- RISC-V startup recruits former Agile Analog CEO
The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California but says it is looking to recruit engineers for its offices in Cambridge, UK as well as India and Taiwan and Oregon, Austin and Fort Collins in the US. The company is also looking for cryptographic expertise as well as a full range of chip design roles.
“The rapid changes in LLMs and the merger with the data analytics stack makes it vital that accelerators be easy to program and debug, and that data can seamlessly move between CPU and accelerator. Rivos addresses this need through our recompile-not-redesign approach.” said Puneet Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Rivos. “I’m grateful for Matrix’s vote of confidence in this approach and pleased to welcome Romit to the Board.”
“Rivos quickly became an active participant in the community. The depth of experience from the Rivos engineers has enabled RISC-V to leap ahead in ISA, system and security specifications,” said Calista Redmond, CEO of RISC-V International.
On the software side Rivos was an instigator of the open source RISC-V Software Ecosystem (RISE) initiative.
“Expanding the application of data analytics and large language models to encompass not just traditional data types such as text, images, and video, but also genomic and medical data, unlocks unprecedented opportunities for innovation in research and treatment,” remarked David Goel, Managing General Partner of Matrix Capital Management.
- Andes ships RISC-V vector IP for data centre transformer AI
- Full customisation tool for Semidynamics RISC-V cores
“The Rivos team has adeptly integrated the groundbreaking new RISC-V architecture with an inventive accelerator, effectively bringing this vision to life. Their prototype chip serves as a compelling demonstration of their unique capability to leverage the advanced TSMC 3nm process node – a feat few startups have managed to achieve. We eagerly anticipate furthering our support for the company’s move into new realms of achievement, marking each milestone with shared enthusiasm and commitment to excellence.”
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
