❯ Edge AI chip company SiMa.ai closes a $150 million Series C at a $1.45 billion valuation

Running AI on the robot itselfSiMa.ai was founded in San Jose in 2018. It designs chips and the software to go with them so that robots, drones and cars can run AI locally instead of sending data back to the cloud. According to The Next Web, it positions itself as a cheaper, lower-power option to Nvidia’s GPUs, and its customers and partners include Bosch, Emerson, Micron, Synopsys and TRUMPF.

Revenue quadrupled in a yearFounder and CEO Krishna Rangasayee was previously chief operating officer at chipmaker Groq. The company says revenue quadrupled between 2024 and 2025 without disclosing the amount. Target uses include drones, humanoid robots, driver assistance and car cockpits.

Led by Fidelity and AmplifyThe Series C announced on September 28 totals $150 million at a $1.45 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $500 million. Fidelity and Amplify led, with existing investors including Dell Technologies Capital, Maverick Capital and Point72, and new investors AllianceBernstein, Baron Capital, J.P. Morgan and the State of Michigan. The money will scale its developer software Palette Neat and fund new hardware planned for the first half of 2028.

An alternative to NvidiaSiMa.ai competes on power draw and price, and says its software cuts deployment time from months to days. Its difficulty is that the next generation of hardware does not arrive until 2028, and customers may be locked into Nvidia’s edge products in the meantime.

▪ SIGNALCapital is buying both the software brains of robots and the chips that run them, which shows nobody is sure which layer of physical AI will keep the profit.