{
  "id": 14577097,
  "title": "Ricursive Intelligence is betting on AI-designed chips to help solve the compute crisis",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/ricursive-intelligence-is-betting-on-ai-designed-chips-to-help-solve",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-15T01:01:32.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "TechCrunch",
    "slug": "techcrunch",
    "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/14/ricursive-intelligence-is-betting-on-ai-designed-chips-to-help-solve-the-compute-crisis/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Ricursive Intelligence co-founders Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini believe that more efficient AI chip design could alleviate the compute crisis. At TechCrunch Disrupt, the founders unveiled how their startup is leveraging AI to design chips, learn from each iteration, and improve subsequent designs, all aimed at automating and speeding up the chip design process. Goldie emphasized the impending surge in compute demand, stating, \"There is this understanding that in the next five years we are going to have at least 10,000x more demand for compute, and that’s somewhat potentially conservative.\" The founders argue that rather than constructing 10,000 times more data centers, their focus is on creating chips that are more efficient, optimizing bandwidth usage, and enhancing wafer and factory utilization. While the prospect of AI designing its own chips may alarm some, Goldie contends that delegating chip design to AI will enable humans to concentrate on developing applications and uncovering new possibilities to amplify the potential of computing. She further explained that the shift is towards humans contributing their innovative ideas and creative thoughts, with execution facilitated by AI - a principle that applies to chip design, software development, and beyond. The founders claim that AI challenges conventional chip design methods by identifying unconventional layouts that outperform traditional ones. For instance, their prior AI system, AlphaChip, generated a circular, \"donut-shaped\" chip component arrangement, initially bewildering engineers but eventually proving to be successful. They explained their strategy of optimizing complete chips instead of adhering to the conventional method of segmenting them into numerous smaller blocks. This approach allows AI to generate elaborate patterns, including wave-like designs, which the founders intend to reveal further details about in the future. The founders also underscored that AI-designed chips will enable the creation of various chips that might have been unattainable before. \"If it takes six months, a year, or two years to design a new chip, you have to be extremely selective about the chips you design,\" Goldie stated. \"But if you can design a chip in a week, and then for manufacturing, design custom chips for a slew of different applications in space, AR, VR, biological computing, and it makes financial sense to do so, then we can be more energy-efficient.\"",
  "summary": "The founders detailed how their startup is developing AI that can design chips, learn from each iteration, and improve subsequent designs, all with the goal of automating and accelerating the chip design process.",
  "key_points": [
    "AI system AlphaChip created unconventional chip layouts, like circular 'donut' arrangement",
    "AI-designed chips enable creation of diverse chips for space, AR, VR, biological computing"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Automating the chip design process through artificial intelligence shifts the focus from building more data centers to optimizing hardware efficiency for a massive surge in upcoming compute demand.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}