Nvidia's rise has fueled renewed investor interest in AI chip startups. One of them, Blaize, founded by former Intel engineers, announced on Monday that it plans to go public on Nasdaq on Tuesday in a SPAC deal.
Launched in 2011, Blaize It raised $335 million from investors like Samsung and Mercedes-Benz. State of California Headquartered in El Dorado Hills, it focuses on manufacturing AI chips for edge applications. Rather than using its chips in massive data centers (like Nvidia's), security cameras, It aims to integrate into smart products like drones and industrial robots.
“AI-powered edge computing is the future because of its low power consumption, low latency, cost efficiency and data privacy advantages,” CEO Dinakar Munagala, who has worked for Intel for nearly 12 years, told TechCrunch in a statement.
Blaize is currently a minor player in the massive AI chip industry, unprofitable, with $3.8 million in revenue and $87.5 million in losses by 2023, he said. its most recent available fiscal year; its documents. However, Chipmakers need a lot of capital to build their manufacturing (which Blaize says is done in the US).
“As you can imagine, (as a) chip company, when you invest a lot, the hockey stick comes up,” Munagala told TechCrunch.
Blaize is also referring to $400 million in payments for the pipeline. A deal on its investor deck boosts a $104 million purchase signed with an unnamed EMEA “department of defense” in the Middle East for a system that can identify unknown or friendly troops. (Munagala does not say exactly which country it is.)
Munagala told TechCrunch that he expects Blaize to be worth $1.2 billion after its SPAC merger. That's lower than private valuations for other closely watched companies like Cerebras, which filed for an IPO last fall. It sought to double its $4 billion valuation.TechCrunch previously reported However, Cerebras has been under pressure as some investors blame it on an over-reliance on a Middle Eastern client. Investors told CNBC.
Unlike Blaize, Cerebras focuses on data center chips. Blaize going public is a bet on a future where AI chips eventually become more integrated into physical products from centralized data centers.
“All the AI hype is happening in the data center. Interestingly, They completely ignore and forget the real physical world use cases that are touching people's lives and happening right now and making money,” Munagala told TechCrunch. “We're focused on applying AI to the physical world.”
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