The startup Rivos has raised USD 250 million i.e. Rs 2,067 crores in series A-3 funding to create high-performance hardware for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. Rivos, which was founded in 2021, is building RISC-V-based AI server chips to power large language model training and inferencing.

The funding round was led by Matrix Capital Management, with participation from Intel Capital, Dell Technologies Capital, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Cambium Capital, Hotung Venture Group, and MediaTek. The money will be used to finalize Rivos’ first silicon product, and expand its manufacturing operations and software engineering efforts.

Rivos offers server chips that combine an AI accelerator with a CPU, which are optimized for running AI models and powering data analytics applications. The startup is also developing software solutions to support its chip’s open-source architecture, similar to Nvidia’s CUDA toolkit.

Rivos’ founders have backgrounds in big tech. Puneet Kumar, the co-founder and CEO, previously worked as a senior director at Google and a director at Apple. Fellow co-founders Mark Hayter and Belli Kuttanna were formerly of Apple and Intel, respectively.

According to David Goel, Matrix Capital Management’s managing general partner, expanding the application of data analytics and large language models to encompass not just traditional data types such as text, images, and video, but also genomic and medical data, unlocks unprecedented opportunities for innovation in research and treatment.

Goel said that Rivos’ team has adeptly integrated the groundbreaking new RISC-V architecture with an inventive accelerator, effectively bringing this vision to life.

Rivos has offices in Santa Clara, Austin, Fort Collins, and Portland in the United States, as well as in Cambridge, U.K., Bangalore, India, and Hsinchu in Taiwan.