Chinese GPU chip designer raises $186m

Guangzhou-based Gortune Investment and China Unicom Capital also participated in the round. The company secured Series B funding - described as hundreds of millions of renminbi - in 2019 with Centurium and US-based Princeville Capital taking the lead, according to AVCJ Research.

Founded in 2015, Iluvatar focuses on graphics processing units (GPGPU) for general-purpose computing. GPU is the mainstream solution for powering artificial intelligence computation in areas like autonomous driving, finance, education, and healthcare. GPU chips, which can satisfy general graphics and high-performance computing, are deemed to represent the height of chip technology.

Iluvatar claims to be the only company in China that has chip products under the GPU architecture. The new funding will accelerate product commercialization. Iluvatar initiated a 7-nanometre cloud computing GPGPU chip in 2018. It was taped out in May 2020 and its usability was proved last December.

The company claims its product provides more flexible programming ability and stronger performance at a lower cost than competing mainstream offerings.

Iluvatar's round comes a matter of days after Moore Threads, a Chinese GPU chip desinger established as recently as last October by a team from Nvidia, closed two funding rounds amounting to several billion renminbi. Participants included Sequoia Capital China, GGV Capital, and ByteDance.

Chip design is arguably the most popular area among PE and VC investors targeting China's semiconductor industry, largely because it has the highest technology content and is the least capital intensive. GPU chips - often referred to as AI chips in China - are said to have the largest market ceiling, given the exponential growth of AI-related applications.

AI chip designers that have received private funding in recent months include Biren Technology, Enflame Technology, and Horizon Robotics. Meanwhile, last July, VC-backed Cambricon Technology became the first Chinese AI chip manufacturer to list on Shanghai's Star Market.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• China
• semiconductor
• Centurium Capital