Velaura AI raises $110M to develop power-efficient AI chips

Velaura AI, a company specializing in low-power artificial intelligence chips, has secured $110 million in funding. The Series A round was led by Seligman Ventures, with additional investments from Samsung Catalyst Fund, Mayfield, and more than half a dozen other investors. Following a recent rebrand from Auradine, the company is now valued at over $1 billion.

Velaura's shift in focus from crypto accelerators to a new offering called Titan Core, a suite of processor building blocks aimed at helping customers create AI chips, has been a key development. The Teraflux AH3880 processor, one of Velaura’s most advanced crypto chips, can carry out up to 600 trillion computations per second when cooled by liquid.

Its EnergyTune feature allows the chip to reduce energy consumption when grid capacity is constrained. Velaura's Titan Core is designed to cut the energy needed for mathematical operations, such as matrix multiplications, used in large language models by up to four times, potentially saving up to $1,300 per chip over three years.

CEO Rajiv Khemani explained that this focus on energy efficiency is crucial as AI advances, demanding more compute power and energy. The company's chip designs are optimized for low voltage, with customers able to commission custom low-voltage circuits if needed. To aid customers, Velaura provides them with a set of pre-packaged cell designs and a proprietary toolflow that enhances reliability and manufacturing yield.

The new funding will be used to accelerate engineering efforts and expand customer support teams. Beyond data centers, Velaura sees potential for its low-voltage chip technology in edge devices. The company is currently collaborating with several hyperscalers on chip projects using advanced manufacturing processes like three- and two-nanometer nodes.