Raja Koduri’s Oxmiq has secured $35 million to lease AI chip design rather than selling the chips outright.

      Oxmiq Labs has successfully secured $35 million in a Series A funding round aimed at expanding OxCore, a licensable GPU architecture that the startup claims enables chip manufacturers to create custom AI silicon without undergoing a lengthy, multi-year design process. With this round, the total capital raised by the company since its inception by seasoned chip architect Raja Koduri reaches $60 million.

      The proposal is simple, albeit the engineering behind it is complex. Developing an advanced AI chip from the ground up generally requires hundreds of millions of dollars and years of effort, a challenge that has made custom silicon largely inaccessible for all but the largest cloud providers and chipmakers.

      Oxmiq intends to market the design as licensable intellectual property, similar to how Arm licenses its processor cores, instead of producing completed chips. OxCore is the centerpiece of this strategy.

      The architecture encompasses three computing engines: a CUDA-compatible GPU engine, a tensor processing engine, and an orchestration engine that manages workloads throughout the system, functions that are usually found on separate chips. Oxmiq asserts that this integrated approach is tailored for near-memory computing, minimizing the data movement that increases both costs and energy consumption in AI applications.

      The funding round was co-led by Fundomo and Samsung Catalyst Fund, with involvement from MediaTek, Pegatron Venture Capital, Darwin Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, among other strategic and financial investors mentioned in the announcement. This diverse mix, including a sizable memory and foundry giant like Samsung, a contract manufacturer like Pegatron, and a fabless chipmaker such as MediaTek, indicates interest that transcends mere financial gain.

      Perhaps the most notable development is the addition of Jim Keller to the board. Keller is a prominent chip architect who has worked at Apple, contributed to AMD’s Zen architecture, and developed Tesla’s self-driving silicon before becoming CEO of Tenstorrent. Valluri “Bob” Rao, formerly a fellow in Intel's process technology division, has also joined as an advisor; however, neither appointment includes details on equity or compensation.

      Koduri’s background lends credibility to the proposal. He has a history of leading graphics at AMD and Apple, subsequently overseeing Intel’s graphics and accelerated computing divisions before venturing out on his own. He is part of a select group of architects who have delivered GPU silicon at three of the industry’s largest firms.

      Oxmiq’s headquarters are located in Campbell, California, with a development site in Hyderabad, India. The model of licensing intellectual property is not novel in chip design. Arm has been using a version of this model for decades, while RISC-V startups like SiFive have created entire enterprises around licensing processor cores instead of producing finished silicon.

      What remains less explored is the application of this model to cutting-edge AI accelerators, as leading buyers, particularly Nvidia, have historically preferred to own their architecture outright rather than license someone else's designs.

      Oxmiq's strategy relies on the belief that many semiconductor firms and systems builders would prefer to invest in a tried-and-true core than risk hundreds of millions of dollars and years of engineering effort to create one from scratch. This assessment has gained appeal as spending on AI infrastructure has surged, prompting more companies to seek their own custom silicon rather than depending solely on Nvidia or the in-house chip programs of hyperscalers.

      Details regarding the financing terms beyond the main amount were not disclosed. Oxmiq did not clarify the equity stake taken by its new investors or any near-term revenue, if there is any, that the company is currently generating from existing licensing agreements, thus leaving the commercial momentum backing this round largely unverified in public records.

      The success of this endeavor will ultimately rely less on this funding round and more on whether any of Oxmiq's investors successfully integrate OxCore into commercially viable silicon that is shipped. For now, the $35 million secures operational time for the company and brings a credible name to the board, which itself acts as a form of validation in an industry where trust in untested architectures is a precious asset.