SiMa.ai (see Pulse 2.0 profile here), the software-centric and embedded edge machine learning system-on-chip company, announced it raised an additional $70 million of funding led by Maverick Capital, with participation from Point72 and Jericho, and existing investors Amplify Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Lip-Bu Tan, and others.
SiMa.ai will utilize the $270 million raised to date to continue meeting customer demand for edge AI/ML with its first-generation Machine Learning System-on-Chip (MLSoC) while accelerating the delivery of its second-generation MLSoC for release in Q1 of 2025.
By releasing the second-generation MLSoC, SiMa.ai will unveil one software-centric platform for all edge AI. SiMa.ai’s one platform for all edge AI scales with customers as their AI/ML journey evolves, from computer vision to transformers to multimodal generative AI.
The rapid growth of generative AI is simplifying how we interact with AI/ML through multimodal inputs like text-to-speech, text-to-image, speech-to-text, speech-to-image, audio-to-image, image-to-image, and image-to-video.
Edge devices like robots, drones, diagnostic machines, autonomous vehicles, and more must be equipped to handle this new collaborative interface. The first-generation SiMa.ai MLSoC offers industry-leading performance and efficiency for vision-centric edge inference.
KEY QUOTES:
“AI — particularly the rapid rise of generative AI — is fundamentally reshaping the way that humans and machines work together. Our customers are poised to benefit from giving sight, sound and speech to their edge devices, which is exactly what our next generation MLSoC is designed to do. We have established undeniable technology leadership with our first generation MLSoC and with that momentum, also recognized the imminent need to equip our customers with one software-centric platform that supports all modalities from computer vision to GenAI. To that end, we’re accelerating our ability to execute and have strengthened our investor base even further with the addition of Maverick Capital, Point72 and others, as we remain laser focused on powering the edge the world relies on.”
– Krishna Rangasayee, Founder and CEO at SiMa.ai
“The computational intensity of generative AI has precipitated a paradigm shift in data center architecture. The next phase in this evolution will be widespread adoption of AI at the edge. Just as the data center has been revolutionized, the edge computing landscape is poised for a complete transformation. SiMa.ai possesses the essential trifecta of a best-in-class team, cutting-edge technology and forward momentum, positioning it as a key partner for customers traversing this tectonic shift. We are excited to join forces with SiMa.ai to seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
– Andrew Homan, Senior Managing Director at Maverick Capital
“As edge AI scales, the ecosystem is navigating growing software complexity and ever-increasing demand for AI performance, and is converging on Arm as the computing platform of choice from cloud to edge. It’s exciting to see continued innovation from partners such as SiMa.ai in this space, and we look forward to continued collaboration as we build the future of edge AI on Arm.”
– Paul Williamson, SVP and GM IoT Line of Business, Arm
“Synopsys celebrates the success of SiMa.ai as the company continues to push the limits of AI/ML computing at the embedded edge. Our close collaboration with SiMa.ai across Synopsys’ full-stack AI-driven EDA suite, broad IP portfolio including the Synopsys ARC EV Vision Processor, and hardware-assisted verification solution has enabled SiMa.ai to achieve first-pass silicon success and accelerate development of their high-performance, power-efficient AI designs.”
– Ravi Subramanian, general manager of the Systems Design Group at Synopsys
“The first-time silicon success of SiMa.ai’s first-generation MLSoC marks a significant milestone in our partnership, delivering an embedded edge ML platform with industry-leading performance and efficiency. We are committed to supporting innovators like SiMa.ai, harnessing our most advanced technologies to enable differentiated solutions that meet the rapidly evolving demands in AI.”
– Sajiv Dalal, Executive Vice President of Business Development at TSMC North America
