US-based chip designer and producer SiFive secured $175m on Wednesday in a series F round featuring semiconductor manufacturer Intel’s corporate venturing unit, Intel Capital, at a valuation of over $2.5bn.
Imvestment manager Coatue Management led the round, which was also backed by fellow existing investors including private equity firm Sutter Hill Ventures, taking the company’s total funding to over $350m.
Founded in 2015, SiFive makes purpose-built semiconductors based on clients’ designs utilising an open-source, cloud-based software platform based on RISC-V computer architecture. The capital is set to go towards accelerating the development of its RISC-V products and product roadmap.
Conglomerate SK Group’s memory-chip subsidiary, SK Hynix, led a $61m series E round for the company in August 2020, that included Intel Capital and chipmaker Qualcomm’s investment arm, Qualcomm Ventures, as well as Western Digital Capital, a subsidiary of data storage technology manufacturer Western Digital.
Qualcomm Ventures had previously taken part in SiFive’s $65.4m series D round the previous year alongside wearable biometric device producer Huami. It came after the company raised $50.6m in series C funding from Huami, Western Digital and SK Group’s telecommunications subsidiary, SK Telecom, in 2018.
Patrick Little, chief executive of SiFive, said: “The market has spoken and made it abundantly clear that RISC-V computing will be competing for the heart of all future computing platforms. As the founder and market leader of RISC-V computing it is our role to lead this ecosystem forward and offer customers advanced computing alternative to (semiconductor manufacturer) Arm and others.”
Intel Capital launched a $1bn investment vehicle with its semiconductor fabrication sister business, Intel Foundry Services, last month to support chip technology. It has already formed alliances with RISC-V technology providers including Esperanto Technologies, Ventana Micro Systems, Andes Technology and SiFive itself.
