By Max A. Cherney
LONG BEACH, California, July 29 (Reuters) – Chip design startup ChipAgents expanded its Series A financing with a $60 million infusion to further fund its plans to speed up semiconductor design through the use of AI agents, its chief executive said.
ChipAgents builds software that harnesses so-called AI agents, programs capable of making decisions and executing complex tasks with little or no human oversight, to hasten and automate chip design. Using traditional tools and methods, the process can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years.
In recent months, a batch of startups has surfaced with the promise of using AI to tackle some of the thorniest, costliest parts of the chip design process.
ChipAgents sees the largest speedup in design with the company’s software that is designed to help verify a chip will function as intended, CEO William Wang told Reuters in an interview.
“A big part of that is actually making sure there are no bugs,” Wang said.
Chip design software companies such as Cadence and Synopsys have built AI into their software and launched their own agent products.
Synopsys stock fell 1.5% on Wednesday and Cadence shares sank 2%. Monday, Cadence raised its annual revenue and profit forecasts due to strong demand for its AI-powered chip design software.
This week, ChipAgents said it was expanding its strategic collaboration with Nvidia to include developing ChipAgents’ specialized AI model, which focuses on chip design.
Wang declined to say whether Nvidia was an investor.
B Capital led the additional funding round, which brings its Series A fundraising total to $131 million. Prior investors include Micron, MediaTek and Ericsson.
ChipAgents has about 64 employees and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
(Reporting by Max A. Cherney; Editing by Jamie Freed and David Gregorio)
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