Axelera AI Wins Major Factory Chip Deals and Unveils Next-Gen Europa Chip
Axelera AI Secures Contracts and Launches Europa Chip
By Toby Sterling
Major Contracts and Customer Base
AMSTERDAM, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Dutch chipmaking startup Axelera AI has signed multiple contracts to supply chips to AI factories, it said on Tuesday as it launched "Europa", its second generation of chips, which can be used in specified Dell and Supermicro products.
Understanding AI Factories
An AI factory is a data centre or scientific computing centre devoted to training and running artificial intelligence software.
CEO Insights and Financial Ambitions
CEO Fabrizio Del Maffeo in a phone call with Reuters declined to give precise details, but said the company now has more than 600 customers using Axelera's chips for applications in security, defence, in AI factories and in enterprise settings.
"We have signed deals worth tens of millions," he said.
He said the company is pursuing $1.5 billion in potential sales, though that figure does not represent orders or revenue.
Funding and Growth
Privately-held Axelera has raised more than $450 million since it was founded in Eindhoven in 2021.
European AI Initiatives and Collaborations
EU Supercomputing and AI Factories
The European Union is revamping its existing network of supercomputing centres into AI factories to try to narrow the gap with the U.S. and China and ensure local firms and scientists have access to AI computing power.
Key Partnerships and Projects
Axelera is working with Dell and systems integrator E4 as one of the suppliers of the EU-backed IT4LIA project in Italy and the EU-backed MeluXina project in Luxembourg, among others, the company said.
Product Evolution and Market Competition
Metis and Europa Chips
Axelera is among the European chip startups attacking the AI inference market, meaning chips that are used to run, not train, AI models. Its first generation of Metis chips was aimed at "edge applications" used on site, for instance analysing security data at a factory.
Next-Gen Europa and Future Titania Architecture
Europa is designed for heavier jobs, for instance on corporate servers, while a future "Titania" chiplet architecture will target use in data centres and supercomputers.
European Competitors
European peers and rivals include France's VSORA, Britain's Fractile, Spain's Semidynamics and the Netherlands' Euclyd. Euclyd separately announced a €200 million ($230.80 million) funding round on Tuesday.
($1 = 0.8666 euros)
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by Barbara Lewis)
