Startup Funding: Q1 2026


The new year started off with a bang for private semiconductor companies, with 18 garnering mega funding rounds exceeding $100 million, and two, Rapidus and Cerebras, reaching the $1 billion mark. Predictably, the vast majority of those are either designing chips primarily for AI inference workloads or attempting to overcome bandwidth limitations by improving interconnects from the chip level t... » read more

Startup Funding: Q4 2025


The promise of AI dominated the last quarter of 2025. Investors were eager to claim stakes in both brand-new startups and more established companies developing AI-specific hardware, primarily for data centers, with over $1 billion alone flowing into the sector. The largest round of the quarter went to a new entrant aiming to fundamentally change how AI compute is performed, while two in-memory ... » read more

Startup Funding: November 2022


November was a month for mega-rounds, with ten companies receiving investments of at least $100 million. One of those is a startup providing connectivity solutions for data centers and enabling use of the memory pooling functionality in the latest update to the CXL standard. Two quantum computer startups were part of the $100M+ club this month — one using very cold atoms to take on not only q... » read more

Startup Funding: December 2021


Chinese startups dominated last month's fundraising, with companies from the country comprising about two-thirds of those covered in this report. In addition to the number of companies, startups from China also drew significant amounts of funding, with a display driver company and an EV battery maker each garnering around $1B and six more companies seeing rounds over $100M. Two particularly ... » read more

Startup Funding: May 2021


Big investment poured into AI hardware companies this month, with a focus on edge applications. Companies are experimenting with different architectures, including analog-focused devices and those that are capable of withstanding the harsh conditions of space. IP and EDA startups in China also drew funding as the country tries to create a full chip design ecosystem. Plus, PCB assembly, photonic... » read more

Startup Funding: January 2021


Over $800M in funding went to companies developing autonomous driving technology, from self-driving-focused AI chips to full vehicles and aftermarket solutions. A couple electric vehicle manufacturers stood out this month, with investors putting large backing behind US-based Rivian and China-based Leapmotor. And with EVs come lots of batteries: funding went to a few startups trying out new batt... » read more

Startup Funding: November 2020


Numerous chipmakers pulled in funding in November 2020, with investors putting money into interconnects, memories, AI hardware, and quantum computing. Launching from stealth was a startup aiming to combine AI and 5G. Autonomous delivery did well, too, with one company raising a massive $500M. This month, we take a look at 28 companies that raised a collective $1.1B. Semi & design Connec... » read more

Startup Funding: August 2020


Semiconductor startups were hot this month, with big funding going to designers and chip analytics. In automotive, one Chinese electric vehicle company raised another large round right before its IPO, and a LiDar maker's reverse merger gave it a cash infusion and set it on its own IPO road. Plus, a growing quantum computer developer saw a funding boost. This month, we feature 17 startups that c... » read more

Startup Funding: March 2020


Dedicated AI hardware, quantum computing, and avionics startups shined in March. Here's a look at seventeen startups, which raised a collective $525M. The avionics sector soared thanks to Lilium and its electric vertical takeoff jet. Quantum computing was another hot area, with three companies bringing in ~$88M together. Plus, chip design management, two companies developing AR glasses, and how... » read more

October ’19 Startup Funding: Mega Harvest


Seventeen startups took in mega-rounds of $100 million or more during October, with a cumulative total of just over $3.2 billion. Cybersecurity startups continued to be popular with private investors during the month of October, with 15 financing rounds. Twenty automotive and mobility technology firms picked up new investments. Analytics firms, artificial intelligence/machine learning techno... » read more

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