DEEPX is a South Korean on-unit AI chip (NPU, or neural processing unit) startup that will make hardware and software package for various AI programs in electronic units. The business declared this week that it has raised $80 million (KRW 108.5 billion) in a Collection C round at a valuation of $529 million (KRW 723 billion), which has surged extra than eight times from its Series B funding, about $15 million, in 2021.
The Sequence C funding, which brings its whole raise to all-around $95 million, will go towards mass creation of the startup’s inaugural goods — DX-V1, DX-V3, DX-M1 and DX-H1 — in late 2024 for world-wide distribution. The startup will also use the new funds to expedite acquiring and launching its future technology of large language design (LLM) on-unit remedies.
DEEPX was started in 2018 by CEO Lokwon Kim, who formerly labored at Apple, Cisco Units, the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Centre and Broadcom.
The marketplace dimension of worldwide edge AI, also termed on-unit AI, is projected to achieve $107.47 billion by 2029, up from $11.98 billion in 2021, according to a latest report. “The on-product AI sector, excluding edge servers, demands AI capabilities to be implemented, bypassing servers or the cloud,” Kim instructed TechCrunch. “The [on-device AI market] is increasing thanks to computer system vision abilities like facial and voice recognition, intelligent mobility, robotics, the internet of factors and bodily security methods.”
Kim said that if its mass creation begins this calendar year, probable shoppers these types of as close-product or service companies will be ready to commercialize their solutions with DEEPX’s AI chips in 2025.
DEEPX, which has close to 65 workforce, is not the only enterprise that has designed AI chip alternatives. The Korean outfit competes with Hailo, which landed a $120 million funding round last month SiMa.ai, which shut on $70 million, also in April and Axelera, a Belgium-based mostly AI chip startup that secured $27 million in 2022.
Kim mentioned that his company’s differentiators incorporate cost performance, vitality consumption efficiency and All-in-4 AI Whole Answer, a in depth option for a variety of AI programs. Its All-in-4 AI remedies include: DX-V1 and DX-V3, created for vision methods in residence appliances, surveillance digital camera devices, robot vision and drones as properly as DX-M1 and DX-H1, which are made for AI computing bins, AI servers, smart factories and AI booster chips. DEEPX now has extra than 259 patents pending in the U.S., China and South Korea, Kim mentioned.
“Nvidia’s GPGPU-centered alternatives are the most value-effective for massive language product companies like ChatGPT the whole power consumed by GPUs functioning has attained levels exceed the electrical vitality of an entire place,” Kim claimed. “This collaborative operation technological know-how involving server-scale AI and on-device large AI designs are envisioned to lower energy consumption and costs a lot compared to relying entirely on data centers.”
The startup does not have buyers but but is collaborating with much more than 100 probable purchasers and strategic associates, these kinds of as Hyundai Kia Motors Robotics Lab and Korean IT organization POSCO DX, to check DEEPX’s AI chip capabilities.
SkyLake Equity Associates, a South Korea-based technology-centered private fairness business, led the most up-to-date financial commitment, with participation from BNW Investments, a Korean private equity firm launched by the previous president of Samsung LED and Samsung Electronics’ memory chip unit. AJU IB and preceding backer Timefolio Asset Administration also participated in this round.