Chip startup SiMa.ai raises $150 million Series C at $1.45 billion valuation

SiMa.ai, a San Jose chip startup, announced on September 28 that it raised $150 million in Series C funding at a $1.45 billion valuation. The round was co-led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Amplify.

New investors joining the round include AllianceBernstein, Baron Capital, J.P. Morgan and the State of Michigan. Existing backers Alter Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Maverick Capital, Point72 and StepStone Group also took part. The company has now raised $500 million in total.

SiMa.ai was founded in 2018 by chief executive Krishna Rangasayee, who previously served as chief operating officer at chipmaker Groq. The company designs low-power chips meant to run AI models directly on machines operating in the physical world, such as robots, drones, cars and industrial equipment, a category it calls physical AI. It positions the chips as a cheaper, lower-power alternative to Nvidia's GPUs for these edge use cases, and says more than 150 customers across automotive, robotics and drone markets already use its technology.

The company said proceeds will go toward scaling Palette, its software platform for building and deploying physical AI applications, and toward developing its next generation of chips. SiMa.ai is targeting a release in the first half of 2028 for a chip capable of up to 1,000 TOPS of computing power.

The raise comes amid heavy investor interest in AI infrastructure aimed at environments where power and space are limited, as companies look for alternatives to data-center-class GPUs for AI that has to run locally rather than in the cloud.