Cognichip, the company pioneering Artificial Chip Intelligence (ACI®) to power the future of semiconductor design, announced its launch out of stealth with $33 million in seed funding. Led by Lux Capital and Mayfield, with support from FPV and Candou Ventures, Cognichip is pioneering the first physics-informed foundational model (PIFM) for semiconductors, designed to drastically accelerate development timelines, reduce costs, and enable the next wave of AI innovation.
Not Just Faster, Cheaper, Better: The New Industry Scaling Factor
Founded by experts from Amazon, Google, Apple, Synopsys, Aquantia, and KLA, Cognichip is tackling two major challenges in semiconductor development: high cost and inaccessibility. Chip design today is time-consuming and expensive, often taking 3-5 years and over $100M before reaching production. Traditional approaches, which rely on throwing more money, compute power, and people at the problem, are no longer sustainable. This is especially concerning given the projected shortage of 1 million skilled workers by 2030 – a workforce gap that threatens to constrain the industry’s estimated growth in sales to its projected $1 trillion potential [Deloitte]. Cognichip is building ACI® to address these issues, making chip design faster, easier, and more accessible.
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“Our vision is to fundamentally reshape the economics of semiconductor design,” said Faraj Aalaei, CEO and Founder of Cognichip. “As a founder who has successfully taken two semiconductor companies public, and as a venture capitalist, I have seen firsthand how semiconductor startups are often deemed ‘unfundable’ due to high costs and long timelines. With the rise of Generative AI, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink how chips are designed. I founded Cognichip to disrupt the outdated chip design process and to make semiconductor innovation scalable, secure, and accessible to aspiring future pioneers of our industry. To tackle this massive task, we have assembled a pioneer-minded team stacked with AI scientists with world-class credentials, brilliant chip design veterans, and the best-of-breed enterprise software developers.”
SOURCE: Businesswire