SiFive Secures $400M Oversubscribed Round Valued at $3.65B with Nvidia Backing
SiFive raised a $400 million oversubscribed funding round led by Atreides Management at a $3.65 billion valuation, with Nvidia and other major investors participating. The startup’s open RISC-V CPU designs will integrate with Nvidia’s CUDA software and NVLink Fusion as it targets AI data center deployments.
1. Funding Round Details
SiFive closed a $400 million oversubscribed series funding led by Atreides Management at a valuation of $3.65 billion, marking its first raise since March 2022’s $175 million round at a $2.33 billion pre-money valuation. Other participants included Apollo Global Management, D1 Capital Partners, Point72 Turion, T. Rowe Price and additional VCs.
2. Strategic Nvidia Partnership
Nvidia joined the round alongside private equity and hedge funds, positioning SiFive’s RISC-V CPU designs to complement its GPU ecosystem. The investment enables integration with Nvidia’s CUDA software and NVLink Fusion, aiming to enhance server rack interoperability in AI workloads.
3. Open RISC-V Business Model
SiFive licenses open RISC-V chip designs rather than manufacturing hardware, echoing Arm’s original model before its shift to in-house AI chip production. Its neutral, royalty-based approach diverges from Intel’s x86 and ARM’s proprietary architectures, offering customizable designs for diverse applications.
4. AI Data Center Targeting
With this funding, SiFive intends to expand into CPUs for AI data centers, moving beyond embedded systems use cases. The startup’s collaboration with Nvidia could foster tightly coupled CPU–GPU deployments in next-generation AI ‘factories’ housed in cloud and enterprise data centers.