Chip designer Velaura AI valued at more than $1 billion after funding round

Velaura AI, a chip designer, has secured more than $1 billion in valuation following a $110 million Series A funding round. The funding was led by Seligman Ventures, with participation from Capricorn Investment Group, Samsung Catalyst Fund, StepStone Group, and Maverick Silicon. Velaura AI specializes in low-power chips and software technologies for data centers and physical AI applications, such as robotics and autonomous systems.

The company plans to use the funds to accelerate development and deployment of its AI products, and to hire additional engineers and customer-facing staff. Velaura AI recently unveiled Titan Core, a proprietary chip design platform aimed at enhancing efficiency and power savings in data center workloads. Rajiv Khemani, co-founder and CEO of Velaura AI, stated that the next phase of AI will be determined not only by improved models, but also by more effective compute economics.

Khemani revealed that Velaura AI is working with three of the four leading cloud computing providers, though specific names were not disclosed. Velaura AI generates revenue through an initial fee for its technology, plus a royalty tied to the customer's share of the power savings achieved, a model similar to Arm's per-chip licensing structure prior to its chip manufacturing venture.