Nvidia · CNBC Technology
Nvidia rival tells CNBC it's seeking at least $100M in funding as European AI chip market booms
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Investor interest for AI chip startups is rising, but big challenges remain for the nascent sector.
Key facts
- European AI chip startups are behind in funding, raising $800 million so far in 2026, compared with $4.7 billion for their U.S. counterparts, according to Dealroom
- In the U.S., Cerebras Systems picked up $1 billion in February, and there have been $500 million rounds for MatX, Ayar Labs and Etched this year
- Dutch company Euclyd, backed by the former CEO of chipmaking equipment giant ASML, is currently in discussions with investors for a round of at least 100 million euros ($118 million), its founder
- In December, it acquired assets from AI inference startup Groq for $20 billion and announced in March it had invested $4 billion in two companies developing photonics technology
Summary
In this article TSM TSM NVDA ASML European chip startups developing alternative technology to Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) are eyeing big funding rounds as they look to scale amid the AI boom. Dutch company Euclyd, backed by the former CEO of chipmaking equipment giant ASML, is currently in discussions with investors for a round of at least 100 million euros ($118 million), its founder Bernardo Kastrup, told CNBC in an exclusive interview. So far in 2026, investors have already funnelled more than $200 million into the Netherlands' Axelera and the U.K.'s Olix.
Euclyd is building chip systems to replace GPUs, but with a different architecture, Kastrup said. While GPUs spend time and energy moving data through the memory stack, Euclyd's chips will process data in multiple places, which Kastrup says will increase efficiency for AI inference. Euclyd is working on that. It has already developed a chip for AI inference, and is currently developing a multi-chiplet system — which will process faster than the current iteration of its product — which it aims to produce by 2028. Olix, which is developing photonics-based processors for AI, is also targeting initial customers next year, though it is currently in a research and development phase, Taavet Hinrikus, partner at Plural, an investor in the company, told CNBC. The startup will target any customers in need of inference services, Hinrikus said, including hyperscalers and governments.