SiFive Secures $400 Million Funding, Valued at $3.65 Billion for Open-Source AI Chips

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 18:40:00 +0200

SiFive, a startup founded in 2015 by UC Berkeley engineers, has raised a $400 million funding round, pushing its valuation to $3.65 billion. The company develops RISC-V-based open chip designs, providing an alternative to Intel’s x86 and ARM architectures that dominate the AI computing market. Nvidia participated in the oversubscribed round along with several venture capital firms, private equity, and hedge funds. Atreides Management led the investment, with other notable investors including Apollo Global Management, D1 Capital Partners, Point72 Turion, and T. Rowe Price. SiFive operates similarly to Arm, licensing its chip designs instead of manufacturing them. The company had last raised $175 million in March 2022 at a $2.33 billion pre-money valuation. Traditionally, RISC-V has been associated with smaller-scale applications like embedded systems, but with new funding and Nvidia’s support, SiFive plans to enter the AI data center market. Its designs will be compatible with Nvidia’s