SiFive has raised $400 million in an oversubscribed Series G funding round, bringing its valuation to $3.65 billion as it accelerates development of high-performance data center solutions built on the RISC-V architecture.
The financing was led by Atreides Management and included participation from major investors such as NVIDIA, Apollo Global Management, Point72 Turion, T. Rowe Price Investment Management, Prosperity7 Ventures, and Sutter Hill Ventures. The new capital will support SiFive’s roadmap for scalable CPU and AI infrastructure tailored to the growing demands of agentic AI workloads.
SiFive is positioning its RISC-V-based processor designs as a flexible, energy-efficient alternative to traditional proprietary architectures in data centers. The company plans to expand research and development across scalar, vector, and matrix compute capabilities, while also strengthening its software ecosystem with support for platforms like CUDA, Red Hat, and Ubuntu.
A key focus of the investment will be enabling hyperscale customers to deploy customizable CPU solutions. SiFive is also deepening collaborations with industry partners, including efforts tied to NVIDIA NVLink Fusion, to build tightly integrated AI systems.
The company highlighted the increasing importance of CPUs in orchestrating complex AI systems, particularly as workloads evolve toward more advanced, agentic models. SiFive argues that its RISC-V architecture offers improved power efficiency and faster development cycles compared to legacy designs, helping customers scale compute performance within constrained energy budgets.
SiFive, founded by the creators of the RISC-V instruction set architecture, has seen rapid growth, with its processor IP now used in over 500 designs and more than 10 billion cores shipped globally. The company aims to capture a significant share of what it views as a potential $100 billion-plus market opportunity in next-generation AI and data center infrastructure.
KEY QUOTES:
“Hyperscale customers have made it very clear that it is time to accelerate the availability of open standard alternatives for the data center. Their consistent ask is for customizable CPU solutions in IP form, that will enable them to meaningfully differentiate their data center compute solutions. RISC-V is the only architecture that truly delivers on these requirements. As the industry urgently evolves toward agentic AI, SiFive is doubling down on the data center. By collaborating with our data center customers we are uniquely positioned to capture a substantial portion of the tremendous agentic AI opportunity.”
Patrick Little, Chairman And CEO, SiFive
“For decades, proprietary ISAs have constrained how the world’s most sophisticated chip designers build and differentiate their silicon. SiFive is breaking that paradigm – unleashing the full potential of RISC-V’s open standard exactly when the industry needs it most. As agentic AI redefines the role of the CPU in AI data centers, SiFive’s RISC-V platform delivers the performance, power efficiency, and architectural freedom that hyperscalers are demanding. We believe SiFive is uniquely positioned to be the long-term winner in this shift.”
Gavin Baker, Managing Partner And CIO, Atreides Management
“The CPU is suddenly exciting again, especially for applications in the data center. SiFive spotted this trend early and is well-positioned to benefit as the industry evolves. While legacy architectures are the current incumbents, we are seeing major chip and hyperscale companies envision a future with RISC-V in the data center. This $400 million investment round signals a pivotal shift toward RISC-V as a primary contender for high-performance computing, offering a flexible, efficient alternative to legacy architectures and bringing the strength of a global ecosystem to drive new solutions.”
Dan Newman, CEO And Chief Analyst, The Futurum Group
“The rapid scale and accelerating pace of AI workloads are exposing the limitations of legacy CPU architectures that weren’t originally built with modern AI performance-per-watt requirements in mind. SiFive’s latest funding round suggests the industry’s historical posture around RISC-V is starting to shift. We’re now seeing more direct engagement, with hyperscalers, silicon vendors, and ecosystem partners working with SiFive to develop highly customizable CPU IP. If that momentum continues, and SiFive delivers on its ambitions, they have a clear path to participate in what could become a large $100 billion-plus market opportunity for next-generation AI and agentic data center infrastructure.”
Dave Altavilla, Principal Analyst, HotTech Vision And Analysis
