AI chip startup Fractile is in advanced talks to raise about $600 million at a pre-money valuation of $6.5 billion, more than six times the valuation it secured just three months ago, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Lightspeed Venture Partners and Redpoint Ventures are reportedly set to co-lead the funding round, while one person familiar with the talks said Thrive Capital and Founders Fund are also co-leading. The round has not yet closed, and terms could still change, the people said.
Fractile previously raised $220 million in May in a round led by Accel, Founders Fund, and Factorial Funds, valuing the British startup at around $1 billion. At the time, the company said the funding would help bring its first AI chips to market.
Anthropic chip deal
The latest fundraising talks follow an agreement for Fractile to sell roughly $250 million of its chips to Anthropic. The companies intend to expand the contract in the future, Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter, though the chips are not expected to be ready until 2027.
Fractile was founded by University of Oxford roboticist Walter Goodwin in 2022 and develops chips focused on AI inference, the process of running trained AI models to generate answers or perform tasks, and aims to reduce the time models take to produce responses or solve complex problems.
Fractile is among a growing number of semiconductor startups trying to compete in the AI inference market dominated by Nvidia, as demand for specialized hardware to run AI models grows.