Editing by Li Panpan

Axera Tech(爱芯元智), a Chinese startup developing artificial intelligence (AI) chips for computer vision applications, announced on January 17 to have raised another round of new funds at RMB 800 million ($126 million) to develop high-end chips and compete internationally.

Qiming Venture Partners, Inno-Chip, Meituan, Meituan-backed Long-Z, Heju Investment, GGV Capital, Lenovo-backed Legend Star, and Glory Ventures all participated in this round of financing. This is the fourth round completed by Axera Tech, which comes less than half a year after its A+ round.

The funds will be invested in attracting top talent from across the industry, expanding its business, developing business cooperation, and developing high-end internationally competitive chips, said the company.  

Established in May 2019, Axera Tech mainly focuses on building AI vision processor chips with high performance and low power consumption. Its core products support a variety of AI visual tasks and are widely used for applications of smart scenarios such as cities, communities, driving, retailing, and home. Up to now, Axera Tech has successfully launched two generations of mass-produced edge AI vision chips: the AX630A and the AX620A that meet customer needs in different scenarios.

In terms of core technology, the firm has an advanced hybrid-precision neural processing unit (NPU), which provides an efficient AI basic computing platform with high computing power, low costs, and low power consumption. It also has self-developed AI image signal processing (ISP) technology. Based on the joint architecture design of its own ISP and NPU, it can significantly improve the performance of several key modules in traditional ISP and provide infrastructure for customers to expand graphics and image services.

Axera Tech CEO Qiu Xiaoxin said, “We are grateful for the support of our investors. Axera Tech has made great achievements in the past, and we will continue to promote innovative development in AI vision chips and become a long-term partner for our clients.”

According to Chinese media reports, the global demand for AI chips is showing explosive growth. It's reported that the global AI chip market is expected to reach $72.6 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 46.14%. With the rapid development of 5G and AI industries in China, the AI chip industry market also sees enormous growth potential. The market size is expected to exceed RMB 100 billion ($15.75 billion) in 2023. Government incentives in China also promote the fast development of the IC industry, and the growth of domestic chip substitutes has been accelerated in an all-around way. With those combined boosters in policies, markets, and technologies, China's AI chip industry has ushered in the best time for rapid development. Therefore, Chinese players such as traditional chip designers, IT manufacturers, technology companies, and Internet start-ups vigorously develop AI chips.