Nuvia closes series A, eyes data center servers

According to a company press release, the funding round was co-led by Silicon Valley investors Capricorn Investment Group, Dell Technologies Capital, Mayfield Fund, and WRVI Capital, along with additional funds from Nepenthe LLC. Formed with the goal of “reimagining silicon design to deliver industry-leading performance and energy efficiency for the data center,” according to the press release, company founders include semi design veterans John Bruno, Manu Gulati and Gerard Williams III, who have served in engineering leadership roles at companies that include Google, Apple, ARM, Broadcom and AMD. To date, Nuvia has been instrumental in driving the system engineering and silicon design on 20+ chips and amassed over 100 patents. Nuvia CEO Gerard Williams III said, “The world is creating more data than it can process as we become increasingly dependent on high-speed information access, always-on rich media experiences and ubiquitous connectivity. A step-function increase in compute performance and power efficiency is needed to feed these growing user needs. The timing couldn’t be better to create a new model for high-performance silicon design with the support of a world-class group of investors,” the press release said. “The compute-intensive demands of next-generation platforms are stretching the conventional limitations of the semiconductor industry,” Dipender Saluja, managing partner of Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund said in the press release. “What’s needed is a new approach to silicon design that provides non-linear increases in performance and energy efficiency. We’re excited to partner with NUVIA on this journey as they realize this promise for the next era of semiconductors and computing.” Scott Darling, the president of Dell’s investment arm, Dell Technologies Capital said, “The formation of NUVIA is a prime example of remarkable innovation born in Silicon Valley. The best companies start when founders with outstanding track records of performance come together to identify a big problem and line up the best investment team to help them succeed. As part of that team, we’re focused on providing NUVIA with DTC’s unique value and market leverage.” In a Reuters story published today, Williams said that he could not respond to questions about whether Dell would use Nuvia’s chips, but he did comment on the nature of the semiconductor design industry: “The silicon industry is relentless. It pounds forward. You have to have a world-class team to do something disruptive enough that it will prevail despite the response of competitors. At NUVIA, we think we have found one.”