Cognichip secures $33 million to deliver Artificial Chip Intelligence

Artificial Chip Intelligence (ACI) startup Cognichip has announced its launch out of stealth with USD 33 million in seed funding. 

Led by Lux Capital and Mayfield, with support from FPV and Candou Ventures, Cognichip is pioneering the first physics-informed foundational model (PIFM) for semiconductors, designed to accelerate development timelines, reduce costs, and enable the next wave of AI innovation, the company said.

Cognichip is tackling two major challenges in semiconductor development: high cost and inaccessibility.  

“Our vision is to fundamentally reshape the economics of semiconductor design,” said Faraj Aalaei, CEO and Founder of Cognichip. “I founded Cognichip to disrupt the outdated chip design process and to make semiconductor innovation scalable, secure, and accessible to aspiring future pioneers of our industry. To tackle this massive task, we have assembled a pioneer-minded team stacked with AI scientists with world-class credentials, brilliant chip design veterans, and the best-of-breed enterprise software developers.”

Cognichip’s ACI introduces a breakthrough, physics-informed AI foundation model, purposely built for semiconductor design. ACI fundamentally rethinks 40 years of traditional, serial chip development with a modern, AI-first, conversational design approach, leveraging large-scale, secure, accelerated compute infrastructures, according to a media release.

“What excites us is how Cognichip is fundamentally transforming the economics and speed of semiconductor design through their Artificial Chip Intelligence,” said Navin Chaddha, Managing Partner at Mayfield. “We are excited to partner with Faraj Aalaei and the Cognichip team as they democratize access to semiconductor innovation and build something truly revolutionary that will power tomorrow’s AI infrastructure.”

“Cognichip is introducing a new scaling factor for semiconductors: intelligence. By embedding AI deep into the physics of chip design, they are accelerating innovation in a way that traditional scaling could never achieve,”  said Shahin Farshchi, Partner at Lux Capital. “We believe Cognichip’s approach will reshape the foundation of the semiconductor industry for decades to come.”