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

Chip Industry Startup Funding: Q3 2025


The third quarter of 2025 was dominated by massive rounds for companies developing AI chips and quantum computers. Over $2.5 billion went to AI, with wafer-scale chip maker Cerebras leading the pack with a $1.1 billion raise. While several edge AI companies received backing, the quarter saw a marked shift towards solutions for the data center as firms seek to reduce the cost and power consumpti... » read more

Startup Funding: Q4 2024


The fourth quarter of 2024 saw five mega-rounds of over $100 million. One of the hottest areas continues to be AI hardware, with one company developing RISC-V AI processor IP bringing in nearly $700 million in the largest round for a chip design startup this year. It was far from the only AI startup, however, as several companies gathered support for neuromorphic designs focused on ultra-low po... » read more