Key facts
- Axelera AI has signed deals worth tens of millions of dollars.
- The company has over 600 customers using its chips for security, defense, AI factories, and enterprise settings.
- Axelera AI is pursuing $1.5 billion in potential sales.
- The privately-held company has raised over $450 million since its founding in 2021.
- Axelera AI's new "Europa" chip is designed for heavier AI inference jobs on corporate servers.
- Axelera AI is working with Dell and E4 on EU-backed projects like IT4LIA in Italy and MeluXina in Luxembourg.
Dutch chipmaking startup Axelera AI announced on Tuesday that it has secured multiple contracts to supply chips to AI factories and has launched its second-generation chip, "Europa." The company stated that the deals are worth tens of millions of dollars and that it has over 600 customers across various sectors including security, defense, AI factories, and enterprise settings. Axelera AI is also pursuing $1.5 billion in potential sales, though this figure does not represent orders or revenue. Since its founding in Eindhoven in 2021, the privately-held company has raised more than $450 million.
The European Union is actively working to bolster its AI capabilities by transforming its supercomputing centers into AI factories, aiming to reduce the gap with the U.S. and China and ensure local access to AI computing power. Axelera AI is contributing to this effort by supplying chips for EU-backed projects such as IT4LIA in Italy and MeluXina in Luxembourg, collaborating with Dell and systems integrator E4.
Axelera AI focuses on the AI inference market, which involves chips used to run AI models rather than train them. Its first generation of chips, Metis, was designed for edge applications. The new "Europa" chip is intended for more demanding tasks on corporate servers, with a future "Titania" chiplet architecture planned for data centers and supercomputers. The company competes with European peers like France's VSORA, Britain's Fractile, Spain's Semidynamics, and the Netherlands' Euclyd, the latter of which announced a €200 million ($230.80 million) funding round on the same day.