What are the fundraising trends in the semiconductor industry?
In our semiconductor industry deck, you will find everything you need to understand the market
SUMMARY
We analyzed the semiconductor market from January 2024 through May 2026, using publicly disclosed equity rounds of $300K or more raised by pure-play semiconductor-device and wafer-foundry companies. The resulting sample contains 60 qualifying deals in 2024, 63 qualifying deals in 2025, and 42 qualifying deals in year-to-date 2026.
Capital is clearly moving into the semiconductor market. Full-year disclosed funding rose from about $4.3B in 2024 to about $9.7B in 2025, and year-to-date 2026 has already reached about $7.0B across 42 deals.
The acceleration is real, but it is not evenly distributed. In year-to-date 2026, the largest round, Rapidus at about $1.7B, represents roughly 24% of all disclosed capital, while the top 10 rounds represent about 77%.
Deal count is also rising. Year-to-date 2026 has 42 deals, compared with 27 deals over the comparable 2025 period, so the semiconductor market is seeing both broader activity and larger checks.
The typical round is much smaller than the headline average. In year-to-date 2026, the average round is about $167M, while the median is $50M, which means the average is being pulled upward by a relatively small set of very large financings.
Logic Semiconductors dominate the semiconductor market. The category accounts for about 71% of year-to-date 2026 capital and 64% of deals, driven by AI accelerators, optical interconnect, chiplets, AI networking, and data-movement infrastructure.
Foundry Services appear large in 2026 because of one nationally strategic financing. Rapidus alone created about $1.7B of foundry capital, so this is better read as a strategic manufacturing signal than as proof of a broad foundry-startup funding wave.
North America leads year-to-date 2026 with about $3.9B across 22 deals. Asia-Pacific remains important with about $2.3B, while Europe has become more credible at scale with about $825M across 10 deals.
First financings are still happening, but they do not capture most of the money. In year-to-date 2026, first financings represent about 29% of deals and 11% of capital, which means new company formation is alive while the biggest checks still favor validated follow-on companies.
The main market interpretation is that semiconductor funding has become an AI infrastructure story. Investors are not just funding chips; they are funding control points around compute density, memory access, optical connectivity, power delivery, data movement, and manufacturing capacity.
This chart, featured in our semiconductor industry deck, shows the revenue mix across customer segments in the semiconductor industry
Is more or less capital going into the semiconductor market?
More capital is going into the semiconductor market, and the increase is large enough to treat as a real acceleration rather than a rounding artifact. So far in 2026, disclosed qualifying semiconductor funding has reached about $7.0B across 42 deals, compared with about $3.4B across 27 deals over the comparable 2025 period.
That means capital is up a little more than 2x while deal count is up roughly 56%. The full-year comparison points in the same direction: 2025 reached about $9.7B across 63 deals, versus about $4.3B across 60 deals in 2024.
The important caveat is concentration. Rapidus alone accounts for about 24% of year-to-date 2026 capital, and the top 10 rounds account for about 77%. The semiconductor market is receiving far more money, but that money is not spreading evenly across companies.
The cleaner interpretation is that capital is up, but investor conviction is concentrated. Excluding rounds above $50M, year-to-date 2026 capital is about $467M, compared with about $360M over the comparable 2025 period. That is still growth, but it is not the same as the headline doubling.
The practical takeaway is simple. The semiconductor market is expanding in both breadth and check size, but the check-size effect is doing most of the work.
Is semiconductor funding driven by more deals or larger rounds?
Semiconductor funding is being driven by both more deals and larger rounds, but larger rounds are the stronger driver. Deal count increased from 27 to 42 in the year-to-date comparison, while capital rose from about $3.4B to about $7.0B.
That gap matters. Average round size rose from about $125M to about $167M, and median round size rose from $36M to $50M. The semiconductor market is not simply adding more startups; it is repricing the strongest companies upward.
The full-year comparison confirms the same structure. Full-year 2025 had only slightly more deals than 2024, 63 versus 60, but capital more than doubled. Average round size rose from about $72M to about $154M, while median round size rose from about $26M to $44M.
The honest interpretation is that this is not a normal venture-cycle rebound where many more companies raise modest rounds. The semiconductor market is being repriced around infrastructure-scale companies tied to AI compute, optical interconnect, memory bottlenecks, power delivery, and foundry capacity.
For deeper benchmarks on how semiconductor deal sizes, medians, and round distributions are shifting, see our semiconductor market deck. It gives more context on why headline capital and typical round size are moving differently.
Is semiconductor capital moving toward later-stage or earlier-stage companies?
Semiconductor capital is moving strongly toward later-stage and scale-stage companies, even though early-stage formation remains visible. So far in 2026, late-stage capital, defined as Series B and later plus growth equity, represents about 81% of all capital.
The deal-count picture is more balanced. Series A is the most common stage in year-to-date 2026 with 13 deals, and Seed accounts for 8 deals. That means early-stage startups are still entering the semiconductor market, but they are not receiving most of the dollars.
The dollars are going to companies that need to finance manufacturing readiness, system integration, customer deployment, supply commitments, and strategic scale. This is exactly what you would expect in a category where technical proof is only the first step and commercialization requires expensive execution.
The year-to-date comparison with 2025 needs care because 2025 had a large unknown-stage bucket, especially from opaque or approximate Chinese financings. The better read is that 2026 gives a clearer signal: capital is visibly moving to growth, Series D+, and large Series B rounds.
The semiconductor market is still forming new companies, but the center of gravity has shifted toward scaling proven assets.
This chart, featured in our semiconductor industry deck, compares the main business model options for fabless semiconductor companies
Is the semiconductor market maturing or still experimental?
The semiconductor market is maturing, but it remains experimental at the technical edge. It is maturing because capital is increasingly concentrated in larger rounds, later-stage companies, repeat follow-ons, and companies backed by strategic investors.
So far in 2026, 20 of 42 deals are $50M-plus rounds, and 15 are above $100M. Late-stage and growth rounds account for roughly 81% of capital. Those are not signs of a purely experimental market; they are signs of a market financing execution.
The experimental layer is still real. Seed and Series A activity continues in optical processing, memory-compute chiplets, power delivery, AI networking, analog/mixed-signal, and photonic switching. First financings account for about 29% of deals so far in 2026, which is higher than the comparable 2025 share.
The right conclusion is that the semiconductor market has split into two layers. One layer is mature, expensive, and infrastructure-like, with companies such as Cerebras, MatX, Ayar Labs, Rebellions, Rapidus, SambaNova, and Axelera AI. The other layer is still experimental, where investors are testing new architectures for optical compute, memory-compute, chiplet fabrics, power-delivery ICs, and analog approaches.
So the semiconductor market is no longer experimental as a whole. But the next performance frontier is still being explored.
Are new startups still entering the semiconductor market?
Yes, new startups are still entering the semiconductor market, and the freshest signal is stronger than the full-year 2025 signal. So far in 2026, first financings represent about 29% of deals and 11% of capital.
That is a meaningful rebound in formation. Over the comparable 2025 period, first financings represented only about 15% of deals and 2% of capital. In full-year 2025, first financings were about 16% of deals and 7% of capital, down from about 27% of deals and 11% of capital in 2024.
The real signal is not that the semiconductor market is easy for new entrants. It is that new entrants are still fundable when they attach themselves to specific bottlenecks. AI networking, optical compute, memory-compute, data-center power, and specialized analog are the kinds of pain points that can justify expensive technical risk.
Generic semiconductor formation is not the story. New-company formation is happening where the problem is acute enough, strategic enough, or infrastructure-critical enough to deserve a new company.
For a broader view of first financings and new-company formation in the semiconductor market, see our full semiconductor market report. It tracks where new entrants are still getting funded and where capital is concentrating instead.
Are more investors entering the semiconductor market?
More investors appear to be entering the semiconductor market in the current year-to-date period, although the full-year comparison is more complicated. So far in 2026, the dataset includes roughly 47 unique tier-1 investors and more than 130 disclosed investors.
That is a major broadening from the comparable 2025 period, which had about 15 unique tier-1 investors and 57 disclosed investors. The freshest signal is that corporate strategics, sovereign-linked funds, deep-tech funds, and AI infrastructure investors are showing up more visibly.
The full-year comparison cuts the other way on raw disclosed-investor breadth. Full-year 2025 had about 32 unique tier-1 investors and 109 disclosed investors, compared with about 45 unique tier-1 investors and more than 190 disclosed investors in 2024. So 2025 looked narrower than 2024.
The most useful interpretation is that investor entry is becoming more selective and more thesis-driven. The semiconductor market is not attracting indiscriminate generalist capital. New and returning investors are entering through specific control points: AI accelerators, optical interconnect, chiplets, memory-compute, foundry capacity, and power delivery.
This chart, featured in our semiconductor industry deck, shows annual funding in semiconductor startups
Are top investors getting more or less active in semiconductors?
Top investors are getting more active in semiconductors in the freshest year-to-date view, but the composition of active top investors is changing. So far in 2026, Maverick Silicon appears in 4 deals, while Intel Capital, Alchip, M12, and Xora Innovation appear in 3 deals each.
Over the comparable 2025 period, imec.xpand led with 3 deals, while Maverick Silicon, Intel Capital, Tiger Global, Fidelity, BlackRock, Temasek, Samsung Catalyst, Parkwalk, BGF, and EIC Fund appeared in 2 deals each. The repeat-investor base is not disappearing; it is shifting toward investors with direct exposure to AI infrastructure and semiconductor roadmaps.
The full-year view shows that repeat investor activity was already meaningful in both 2024 and 2025. Samsung Catalyst Fund appeared in 6 deals in 2024. In 2025, imec.xpand and EIC Fund each appeared in 6 deals, Tiger Global and Fidelity each appeared in 5, and Playground Global appeared in 4.
The strongest interpretation is that top investors are not simply doing more semiconductor deals. They are clustering around clearer bottlenecks. Maverick Silicon, Intel Capital, Alchip, M12, NVIDIA or NVentures, AMD, Samsung Catalyst, Qualcomm Ventures, QIA, Mayfield, Bosch Ventures, and Eclipse appear around interconnect, AI compute, optical I/O, chiplets, and power.
The semiconductor market is becoming a specialist-repeat market where investor identity is itself a credibility signal.
Which semiconductor subcategories are gaining momentum?
Logic Semiconductors, Foundry Services, Memory Semiconductors, and optical or photonic interconnect within logic are the clearest subcategories gaining momentum in the semiconductor market. So far in 2026, Logic Semiconductors captured about $5.0B across 27 deals.
That compares with about $2.4B across 18 deals over the comparable 2025 period. Logic remains dominant because AI compute, chiplets, data movement, and optical infrastructure are all being classified into the logic bucket.
Foundry Services is the most dramatic new category by capital, but it is also the most fragile signal. Rapidus alone raised about $1.7B, creating 24% of all year-to-date 2026 capital and all of Foundry Services capital. This is evidence that a nationally strategic foundry can command enormous capital, not evidence of broad foundry-startup momentum.
Memory Semiconductors are also gaining from a low base. Over the comparable 2025 period, memory had one deal and about $22M of capital. So far in 2026, memory has three deals and about $148M of capital. Xcena and Vertical Compute point toward memory-compute and memory-bottleneck architectures rather than commodity memory supply.
The most important subcategory shift is really within Logic. Ayar Labs, Olix, Neurophos, Mesh Optical Technologies, Xscape Photonics, OpenLight, nEye.ai, Kandou AI, Eridu, Upscale AI, MatX, and Positron show that investor attention is moving from “AI chips” as a generic label toward the infrastructure constraints around AI systems.
We cover this subcategory shift in more detail in our deeper analysis of the semiconductor market, including how logic, memory, power, analog, sensors, and foundry services are moving in different directions.
Which semiconductor subcategories are losing momentum?
Power, Analog, and Sensor Semiconductors are losing momentum on a capital-share basis in the semiconductor market, even though they remain active by deal count. The clearest point is that they are not receiving capital at the same scale as compute, interconnect, optical, and foundry-related companies.
Power Semiconductors account for about $106M and 5 deals so far in 2026, compared with about $751M and 3 deals over the comparable 2025 period. That does not mean power demand has collapsed. The 2025 comparison was distorted by a very large PNJ Semiconductor financing, so the better interpretation is the absence of a comparable giant power round in early 2026.
Analog Semiconductors also look weaker by capital. Analog capital fell from about $159M over the comparable 2025 period to about $31M so far in 2026, while deal count rose slightly from 3 to 4. That means analog activity is still present, but the rounds are smaller.
Sensor Semiconductors are not showing broad momentum either. Sensor capital declined from about $46M over the comparable 2025 period to about $36M so far in 2026, and deal count stayed low. The honest interpretation is that sensors are becoming a selective conviction niche: investable when the company looks platform-like, but not a broad formation wave.
This chart, featured in our semiconductor industry deck, looks at TSMC’s strategy in semiconductors
Which regions are gaining momentum in semiconductor funding?
North America and Europe are gaining momentum in semiconductor funding in the freshest year-to-date comparison, while Asia-Pacific remains important but has lost share from its unusually strong early-2025 base. So far in 2026, North America captured about $3.9B across 22 deals.
That compares with about $806M across 11 deals over the comparable 2025 period. North America is therefore the strongest regional accelerator in both capital and deal count. The region is benefiting from AI accelerator, optical I/O, chiplet, networking, and data-center infrastructure financings.
Europe is also gaining momentum. So far in 2026, Europe captured about $825M across 10 deals, compared with about $245M across 8 deals over the comparable 2025 period. Europe’s average deal size remains below North America’s, but Europe is no longer only producing small technical rounds.
Large financings for Kandou AI, Axelera AI, Olix, and other optical or AI-infrastructure companies show that European semiconductor companies can attract scale capital when they map to AI infrastructure bottlenecks. The practical takeaway is that Europe is becoming more credible at scale, even if North America still has deeper capital depth.
For ongoing regional tracking across North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and other regions, see our market report covering semiconductor funding geography. It follows both where companies are founded and where the capital is concentrating.
Which regions are losing momentum in semiconductor funding?
Asia-Pacific is losing relative momentum in semiconductor funding in the year-to-date comparison, even though absolute Asia-Pacific capital remains very large. Over the comparable 2025 period, Asia-Pacific captured about $2.3B and about 69% of capital.
So far in 2026, Asia-Pacific again captured about $2.3B, but that amount represents only about 33% of capital because North America and Europe grew much faster. Asia-Pacific is not weak. It is simply no longer as dominant as it was during the China-heavy early-2025 period.
The Middle East is also losing visible momentum in the year-to-date comparison. The 2026 year-to-date file shows no Middle East capital or deals through the current cutoff, while the full-year 2024 and 2025 periods both had some Middle East participation.
Latin America and Africa remain absent from the qualifying public financing sample. That absence should not be overinterpreted as a lack of technical talent, but it does show that disclosed semiconductor-device startup financing remains concentrated in regions with existing chip-design ecosystems, strategic customers, government support, or specialized capital.
Is semiconductor funding becoming more global or regionally concentrated?
Semiconductor funding is becoming less dominated by a single region than it was in 2024, but it is not becoming globally distributed in a broad sense. The market is best described as tri-regional rather than fully global.
Full-year 2024 was heavily North America-weighted, with North America capturing about 79% of capital. Full-year 2025 became more balanced between Asia-Pacific and North America, with Asia-Pacific at about 48% of capital and North America at about 45%. So far in 2026, North America leads again with about 55%, Asia-Pacific has about 33%, and Europe has about 12%.
That means North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe are all meaningful. But Latin America and Africa remain absent, and the Middle East is not visible so far in 2026. The semiconductor market is more global than a North America-only venture market, but still regionally concentrated in three semiconductor-capable blocs.
The practical interpretation is that semiconductor funding follows infrastructure density. Capital goes where there are chip-design teams, strategic customers, manufacturing relationships, government support, and investors able to underwrite long technical timelines.
This chart, featured in our semiconductor industry deck, shows how advanced node demand has driven growth in the semiconductor industry over time
Is semiconductor capital moving toward proven winners or new opportunities?
Semiconductor capital is moving toward proven winners, even though new opportunities are still being funded. So far in 2026, first financings represent about 29% of deals but only about 11% of capital.
That means nearly 90% of capital is going to follow-on rounds or companies with prior validation. The same pattern was even stronger over the comparable 2025 period, when first financings represented about 15% of deals and only about 2% of capital.
The full-year comparison also supports this conclusion. In 2025, first financings represented about 16% of deals and 7% of capital, down from about 27% of deals and 11% of capital in 2024. The semiconductor market has been moving away from broad new-company funding and toward companies that have already demonstrated enough credibility to attract larger checks.
The nuance is that the new opportunities receiving capital in 2026 are still ambitious. Eridu, Upscale AI, Olix, Mesh Optical Technologies, Vertical Compute, Claros, Great Sky, Lenzo, optoML, and others show that investors are still backing new ideas. But the capital-weighted vote is clearly for proven winners, validated roadmaps, strategic syndicates, and companies positioned around urgent AI infrastructure bottlenecks.
Our full market view on semiconductor follow-on funding tracks which companies keep attracting capital and which first financings still need to prove they can raise again.
Is the semiconductor market becoming winner-takes-most?
Yes, the semiconductor market is becoming winner-takes-most by capital allocation, although 2026 so far is slightly less top-three concentrated than the comparable 2025 period. So far in 2026, the top 10 rounds captured about 77% of all capital, and the bottom half of deals captured only about 6%.
That is a winner-takes-most funding structure. The average round is about $167M, while the median round is $50M, which means the typical company is raising far less than the headline average.
The comparable 2025 period was even more extreme at the very top. The top 10 rounds captured about 86% of capital, and the top three captured about 59%. So the 2026 market is still highly concentrated, but the concentration is spread across more large rounds rather than being dominated by only a few.
The full-year comparison reinforces the pattern. In 2025, the top 10 rounds captured about 70% of capital, up from about 65% in 2024. The bottom half of deals captured only about 7% in 2025 and about 8% in 2024.
The semiconductor market is increasingly a market where the strongest companies raise infrastructure-scale capital while most funded companies remain comparatively small.
Is the next wave of semiconductor winners becoming visible?
Yes, the next wave of semiconductor winners is becoming visible, especially around AI infrastructure bottlenecks rather than generic semiconductor categories. The most visible next-wave pattern is optical and photonic infrastructure.
Ayar Labs, Olix, Neurophos, Mesh Optical Technologies, Xscape Photonics, OpenLight, nEye.ai, Salience Labs, Scintil Photonics, iPRONICS, and CamGraPhIC all point toward optical I/O, photonic switching, and high-bandwidth data movement as core investable themes.
The next wave is also visible in AI accelerator specialization and chiplet-scale architecture. Cerebras, MatX, Positron, Rebellions, SambaNova, Axelera AI, Efficient Computer, Upscale AI, Eridu, Kandou AI, Eliyan, Primemas, and Point2 Technology suggest that investors are looking beyond faster chips. They are looking for architectures that solve system-level constraints: memory access, interconnect latency, bandwidth, power density, and deployment economics.
The caution is that visibility is not the same as inevitability. The semiconductor market is capital-intensive, and large rounds do not guarantee product-market dominance. But the pattern of large checks, repeat strategic investors, and recurring technical themes makes the next wave easier to see than it was in 2024.
The likely winners are not simply “AI chip startups.” They are companies that own a critical control point in the AI compute stack.
As this chart shows, and as featured in our semiconductor industry deck, search interest in semiconductors has been rising steadily
Is the semiconductor funding landscape fragmenting or consolidating?
The semiconductor funding landscape is fragmenting by technical theme but consolidating by capital allocation. It is fragmenting because funded companies are attacking many distinct bottlenecks: AI accelerators, optical I/O, chiplet fabrics, CXL and memory-compute, data-center power delivery, analog AI, photonic switching, foundry capacity, automotive Ethernet, and specialized sensors.
Deal count across these niches shows that investors are exploring multiple routes to better AI and compute infrastructure. That is the fragmented side of the market: there are many plausible technical answers, and the winning architecture is not fully settled.
But the semiconductor market is consolidating by dollars. So far in 2026, the top 10 rounds captured about 77% of capital, late-stage and growth rounds captured about 81%, and the bottom half of deals captured only about 6%. Many technical paths are being explored, but only a small number of companies are receiving enough capital to become platform-scale contenders.
The better interpretation is that the idea landscape is fragmented while the financing landscape is consolidating. The semiconductor market is broad in experimentation and narrow in capital-weighted conviction.
Where is investor attention shifting in semiconductors?
Investor attention in semiconductors is shifting toward AI infrastructure bottlenecks: compute density, optical interconnect, chiplet data movement, memory access, power delivery, and strategic foundry capacity. The biggest year-to-date 2026 rounds are not random.
Cerebras, MatX, Ayar Labs, Rebellions, SambaNova, Positron, Axelera AI, Rapidus, Kandou AI, Eridu, Upscale AI, and Olix all map to the same core question: how do AI factories scale when compute, memory, bandwidth, power, and manufacturing capacity all become constraints?
The shift is also visible in category economics. Logic Semiconductors still dominate, with about 71% of year-to-date 2026 capital and 64% of deals. But the most interesting logic deals are increasingly about interconnect, networking, chiplets, optical I/O, and system-level AI acceleration.
Foundry Services appear because Rapidus addresses strategic manufacturing capacity. Memory is gaining from a low base because memory-compute and CXL-style bottlenecks are becoming more important. Power remains strategically relevant, but power rounds are not yet being funded at the same scale as compute and interconnect.
The most assertive reading is that the semiconductor market has moved beyond “AI chip” as a broad funding label. Investors are now asking where the actual bottleneck is, and the strongest funding themes are the places where AI scaling breaks.
For more detail on the shift from generic AI chips to AI infrastructure control points, see our semiconductor market report. It breaks the market down by category, region, stage, and investor pattern.
All the funding deals in the semiconductor market from 2024 to April 2026
The table below lists every disclosed semiconductor funding deal in the supplied dataset from January 2024 through April 2026, including the company, fundraising date, business description, category, stage, deal size, region, financing status, and tier-1 investors. For the broader market view, see our semiconductor market deck.
| Company | Date | What they do | Category | Stage | Deal size | Region | First/Follow-on | Tier 1 investor(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenLight | Apr 2026 | Photonic application-specific integrated circuit platform and active/passive silicon-photonics building blocks | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $50M | North America | Follow-on | Matter; Mayfield; Xora |
| nEye.ai | Apr 2026 | Optical circuit-switch chips using silicon photonics, MEMS, and CMOS for AI data centers | Logic Semiconductors | Series C | $80M | North America | Follow-on | Sutter Hill; CapitalG; M12 |
| Point2 Technology | Apr 2026 | Semiconductor company developing e-Tube chip/interconnect technology for AI data-center connectivity | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $76M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | NVentures; UMC Capital |
| Xcena | Apr 2026 | Fabless compute-in-memory/CXL memory semiconductor company, formerly MetisX | Memory Semiconductors | Series B | $103M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Atinum; IMM |
| Rebellions | Mar 2026 | Fabless AI processors and NPU infrastructure for large-scale inference | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $400M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Mirae Asset |
| Amber Semiconductor | Mar 2026 | Power-management IC/tile technology for AI data-center power delivery | Power Semiconductors | Series C | $30M | North America | Follow-on | Not disclosed |
| Eridu | Mar 2026 | AI data-center network switch integrating silicon, optics, packaging, systems, and software | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $200M | North America | First financing | Bosch Ventures; TDK Ventures |
| Xscape Photonics | Mar 2026 | Multi-wavelength photonics platform for AI data-center fabrics | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $37M | North America | Follow-on | Addition; NVIDIA |
| Great Sky | Mar 2026 | AI chips combining superconducting computation, optical communication, and brain-inspired architecture | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $14M | North America | First financing | None clearly tier-1 |
| Ayar Labs | Mar 2026 | Optical I/O chiplets and co-packaged optics for AI systems | Logic Semiconductors | Series D+ | $500M | North America | Follow-on | Insight; Sequoia; QIA; NVIDIA; AMD Ventures; ARK |
| Vertical Compute | Mar 2026 | Vertically integrated memory-and-compute chiplet technology | Memory Semiconductors | Seed | $42.9M | Europe | First financing | imec.xpand; Eurazeo; XAnge; Bpifrance |
| Claros | Mar 2026 | Integrated voltage-regulator and chip-to-grid power-management platform for data centers | Power Semiconductors | Seed | $30M | North America | First financing | General Catalyst |
| EPIC Microsystems | Mar 2026 | Power semiconductor company; details limited in public roundup | Power Semiconductors | Series A | $21M | North America | Follow-on | Not disclosed |
| Anabatic Semiconductor | Mar 2026 | Power semiconductor company; details limited in public roundup | Power Semiconductors | Unknown | $10M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Not disclosed |
| SPARK Microsystems | Mar 2026 | Fabless ultra-wideband wireless semiconductor company | Analog Semiconductors | Series B | $12.4M | North America | Follow-on | Real Ventures; EDC |
| Vexlum | Mar 2026 | Photonics/laser semiconductor technology company | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $11.8M | Europe | Follow-on | Not disclosed |
| Lenzo | Mar 2026 | AI hardware semiconductor company; details limited in public roundup | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $3.2M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | Not disclosed |
| Vervesemi Microelectronics | Feb 2026 | ML-enhanced analog and mixed-signal ICs | Analog Semiconductors | Series A | $10M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None clearly tier-1 globally |
| Positron AI | Feb 2026 | Energy-efficient inference hardware and custom silicon for long-context transformers | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $230M | North America | Follow-on | QIA; Arm; DFJ Growth; Valor |
| Efficient Computer | Feb 2026 | Reconfigurable dataflow processor architecture for high performance per watt | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $60M | North America | Follow-on | Eclipse Ventures; USV; Toyota Ventures; RTX Ventures |
| Cerebras Systems | Feb 2026 | Wafer-scale AI processors and AI compute systems | Logic Semiconductors | Series D+ | $1,000M | North America | Follow-on | Tiger Global; Benchmark; Fidelity; AMD; Coatue |
| MatX | Feb 2026 | High-throughput, low-latency LLM training and inference chips | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $500M | North America | Follow-on | Jane Street; Spark Capital; Marvell; Alchip |
| SambaNova | Feb 2026 | Reconfigurable dataflow AI inference chips and infrastructure | Logic Semiconductors | Series D+ | $350M | North America | Follow-on | Vista; Intel Capital; GV; BlackRock; T. Rowe Price |
| Axelera AI | Feb 2026 | Inference acceleration chips for physical AI and edge AI | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $250M | Europe | Follow-on | BlackRock; Samsung Catalyst |
| Taalas | Feb 2026 | AI models hard-wired into silicon with storage and compute unified in-chip | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $169M | North America | Follow-on | Not disclosed |
| Olix | Feb 2026 | Optical tensor processing unit for AI inference acceleration | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $220M | Europe | First financing | Hummingbird; LocalGlobe; Vertex |
| Mesh Optical Technologies | Feb 2026 | Optical transceiver chips/packaging for AI workloads and data centers | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $50M | North America | First financing | Thrive Capital |
| C2i Semiconductors | Feb 2026 | Power semiconductor company; details limited in public roundup | Power Semiconductors | Series A | $15M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Not disclosed |
| Flexoo | Feb 2026 | Sensor semiconductor company; details limited in public roundup | Sensor Semiconductors | Series A | $13M | Europe | Follow-on | Not disclosed |
| optoML | Feb 2026 | AI hardware semiconductor company; details limited in public roundup | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $1.8M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | Not disclosed |
| Ewigbyte | Feb 2026 | Memory/storage semiconductor company; details limited in public roundup | Memory Semiconductors | Seed | $1.9M | Europe | First financing | Not disclosed |
| Rapidus | Feb 2026 | Pure-play foundry building 2nm logic semiconductor manufacturing capacity | Foundry Services | Growth Equity | $1,700M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | SoftBank; Sony; Fujitsu; NTT; Canon |
| Kandou AI | Jan 2026 | High-speed chip-to-chip interconnect chips and SerDes/retimer products for AI/data-center connectivity | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $225M | Europe | Follow-on | SoftBank; Synopsys; Cadence; Alchip |
| Ethernovia | Jan 2026 | Ethernet-based packet-processing networking chips for software-defined vehicles, robotics, and intelligent machines | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $90M | North America | Follow-on | Qualcomm Ventures; Porsche SE |
| Primemas | Jan 2026 | Chiplet-based hub SoC platform for CXL, AI, and data analytics | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $72M | North America | Follow-on | Not disclosed |
| Eliyan | Jan 2026 | Chiplet interconnect technology and memory/I/O chiplets for multi-die architectures | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $50M | North America | Follow-on | AMD; Arm; Meta; Samsung Catalyst; Intel Capital |
| Upscale AI | Jan 2026 | Silicon, systems, and software for ultra-low-latency AI networking | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $200M | North America | First financing | Tiger Global; Intel Capital; Qualcomm Ventures; Mayfield |
| Neurophos | Jan 2026 | Optical processing unit for AI data centers | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $110M | North America | Follow-on | M12; Aramco Ventures; Bosch Ventures |
| Optalysys | Jan 2026 | Silicon-photonics processing hardware for FHE and cloud infrastructure | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $31.1M | Europe | Follow-on | imec.xpand |
| Qualinx | Jan 2026 | Ultra-low-power GNSS SoCs and front-end receivers | Sensor Semiconductors | Unknown | $23.3M | Europe | Follow-on | Invest-NL |
| INCIRT | Jan 2026 | Analog/mixed-signal semiconductor company; details limited in public roundup | Analog Semiconductors | Seed | $5.6M | Europe | First financing | Not disclosed |
| Sensesemi Technologies | Jan 2026 | Analog/mixed-signal semiconductor company; details limited in public roundup | Analog Semiconductors | Seed | $2.7M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | Not disclosed |
| Unconventional AI | Dec 2025 | Bio-inspired analog AI chips and neuromorphic server systems | Analog Semiconductors | Seed | $475M | North America | First financing | None identified |
| Kunlunxin | Dec 2025 | AI chips for training and inference | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $278M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Baidu |
| Cambricon Technologies | Dec 2025 | AI training and inference accelerators | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $560M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None identified |
| VisIC Technologies | Dec 2025 | GaN power semiconductors for EVs and data centers | Power Semiconductors | Series B | $26M | Middle East | Follow-on | Hyundai; Kia |
| PowerCubeSemi | Dec 2025 | Compound-semiconductor power devices including SiC and gallium-oxide | Power Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $4.1M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None identified |
| Moore Threads | Dec 2025 | GPUs for AI, graphics, and data-center workloads | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $1,130M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None identified |
| Etched.ai | Dec 2025 | Transformer-focused ASICs for large-model inference | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $500M | North America | Follow-on | None identified |
| DreamBig Semiconductor | Nov 2025 | Chiplet platforms for AI and LLM infrastructure | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $75M | North America | Follow-on | Samsung Catalyst Fund |
| Dnotitia | Nov 2025 | AI memory-accelerator chips for vector databases and AI storage | Memory Semiconductors | Unknown | $74M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Samsung Catalyst Fund |
| Teradar | Nov 2025 | Terahertz vision sensor chips for all-weather autonomy | Sensor Semiconductors | Series B | $150M | North America | Follow-on | Toyota Ventures; Playground Global |
| PowerLattice | Nov 2025 | Power-delivery chiplets for AI processors | Power Semiconductors | Series A | $25M | North America | First financing | Playground Global |
| Ferroelectric Memory Company | Nov 2025 | Ferroelectric memory cells aimed at DRAM/SRAM replacement | Memory Semiconductors | Series C | $116.4M | Europe | Follow-on | imec.xpand; EIC Fund; Bosch Ventures |
| Mythic | Nov 2025 | Analog AI processors for edge and data-center inference | Analog Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $125M | North America | Follow-on | DCVC; Lux Capital |
| RAAAM Memory Technologies | Nov 2025 | Gain-cell RAM / next-generation on-chip memory | Memory Semiconductors | Series A | $17.5M | Middle East | Follow-on | NXP; EIC Fund |
| Vertical Semiconductor | Oct 2025 | Vertical GaN transistors for power conversion | Power Semiconductors | Seed | $11M | North America | First financing | Eclipse Ventures; Playground Global |
| Arago | Sep 2025 | Photonic AI accelerators | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $26M | North America | First financing | Earlybird |
| Scintil Photonics | Sep 2025 | Silicon photonic ICs with integrated lasers for AI data-center interconnect | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $58M | Europe | Follow-on | EIC Fund; Bpifrance; imec.xpand |
| Cerebras Systems | Sep 2025 | Wafer-scale AI processors | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $1,100M | North America | Follow-on | Tiger Global; Fidelity; Altimeter |
| SiPearl | Sep 2025 | High-performance processors for supercomputing and AI | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $37.6M | Europe | Follow-on | EIC Fund; Bpifrance |
| Nanopower Semiconductor | Sep 2025 | Ultra-low-power power-management ICs | Power Semiconductors | Unknown | $11M | Europe | Follow-on | None identified |
| Empower Semiconductor | Sep 2025 | Integrated voltage regulators for AI processors | Power Semiconductors | Series D+ | $140M | North America | Follow-on | Fidelity; Tiger Global |
| Groq | Sep 2025 | AI inference chips and systems | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $750M | North America | Follow-on | BlackRock |
| EdgeCortix | Aug 2025 | Energy-efficient AI processors for edge GenAI | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $30M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Renesas |
| SiMa.ai | Aug 2025 | Machine-learning SoCs for physical AI | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $85M | North America | Follow-on | Maverick Capital; Fidelity |
| FermionIC Design | Aug 2025 | RF and mixed-signal chips for satellite, defense, and telecom systems | Analog Semiconductors | Unknown | $2.5M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None identified |
| Paragraf | Aug 2025 | Graphene-based electronic devices and sensors | Sensor Semiconductors | Unknown | $55M | Europe | Follow-on | None identified |
| Celera Semiconductor | Aug 2025 | Custom analog ICs built with a digital-twin analog design platform | Analog Semiconductors | Series A | $20M | North America | First financing | Maverick Silicon |
| Netrasemi | Jul 2025 | Edge-AI SoCs for smart vision and IoT devices | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $12.4M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None identified |
| Q.ANT | Jul 2025 | Photonic processors for AI and HPC | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $71.8M | Europe | Follow-on | imec.xpand |
| IceMOS Technology | Jun 2025 | Power semiconductor devices and SOI-wafer-based components | Power Semiconductors | Unknown | $22M | North America | Follow-on | None identified |
| Avicena | Jun 2025 | Optical die-to-die interconnect chips based on GaN microLEDs | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $65M | North America | Follow-on | Tiger Global; Eclipse Ventures |
| Biren Technology | Jun 2025 | AI GPUs for data-center training and inference | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $207M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None identified |
| ONiO | Jun 2025 | Ultra-low-power MCUs running on ambient energy | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $5.8M | Europe | Follow-on | None identified |
| Speedata | Jun 2025 | Analytics processing units for big-data and AI workloads | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $44M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Walden Catalyst |
| Snowcap Compute | Jun 2025 | Superconducting logic/computing platforms | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $23M | North America | First financing | Playground Global |
| Finwave Semiconductor | May 2025 | GaN-on-Si RF semiconductors for 5G/6G networks | Analog Semiconductors | Unknown | $8.2M | North America | Follow-on | None identified |
| Eyeo | May 2025 | Image sensors using color-splitting photonics | Sensor Semiconductors | Seed | $17M | Europe | First financing | EIC Fund; imec.xpand |
| Retym | Mar 2025 | Coherent DSP chips for cloud and AI networking links | Logic Semiconductors | Series D+ | $75M | North America | Follow-on | Fidelity; BlackRock; Kleiner Perkins |
| Vertical Compute | Mar 2025 | Memory-and-compute chiplets for AI systems | Memory Semiconductors | Seed | $21.6M | Europe | First financing | imec.xpand |
| iPRONICS | Mar 2025 | Programmable photonic networking chips for AI data centers | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $21.6M | Europe | Follow-on | Amadeus Capital |
| Swave Photonics | Mar 2025 | Holographic chips for AR and spatial-computing displays | Sensor Semiconductors | Series A | $29.2M | Europe | Follow-on | EIC Fund; imec.xpand |
| MemryX | Mar 2025 | Edge AI semiconductor accelerators | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $44M | North America | Follow-on | Arm |
| Cambridge GaN Devices | Mar 2025 | GaN power devices for efficient power conversion | Power Semiconductors | Series C | $32M | Europe | Follow-on | British Patient Capital |
| Salience Labs | Mar 2025 | Silicon photonic switches for AI data-center networking | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $30M | Europe | Follow-on | Applied Ventures |
| AheadComputing | Mar 2025 | High-performance RISC-V CPU technology for AI workloads | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $21.5M | North America | First financing | Eclipse Ventures |
| CamGraPhIC | Mar 2025 | Graphene-integrated optical interconnects for high-bandwidth data links | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $27M | Europe | Follow-on | None identified |
| Celestial AI Series C1 | Mar 2025 | Optical interconnect chiplets for AI data-center memory fabrics | Logic Semiconductors | Series C | $250M | North America | Follow-on | Fidelity; BlackRock; Temasek |
| Celestial AI Series C | Mar 2025 | Optical interconnect chiplets for AI infrastructure | Logic Semiconductors | Series C | $175M | North America | Follow-on | Temasek |
| Eliyan | Mar 2025 | Die-to-die interconnect technology for chiplet-based AI systems | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $60M | North America | Follow-on | Intel Capital; Tiger Global |
| Axelera AI | Feb 2025 | Edge AI acceleration chips and software | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $66.5M | Europe | Follow-on | EIC Fund / European Innovation Council |
| Pakal Technologies | Feb 2025 | High-voltage power semiconductors for industrial energy systems | Power Semiconductors | Series B | $25M | North America | Follow-on | None identified |
| Oso Semiconductor | Feb 2025 | Beamforming chips for phased-array wireless antennas | Analog Semiconductors | Seed | $5.2M | North America | First financing | None identified |
| EnCharge AI | Feb 2025 | Analog in-memory-computing AI chips | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $100M | North America | Follow-on | Tiger Global |
| Blumind | Feb 2025 | Analog AI chips for physical-information processing | Analog Semiconductors | Series A | $14M | North America | Follow-on | BDC Capital |
| Chi Xin Semiconductor | Jan 2025 | Low-power IoT connectivity chips | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $28M | Asia-Pacific | Unknown | None identified |
| Hyseim | Jan 2025 | Semiconductor chips for computing and connected-device applications | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $140M | Asia-Pacific | Unknown | None identified |
| Ultrarisc | Jan 2025 | Processor chips, likely RISC-V architectures | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $140M | Asia-Pacific | Unknown | None identified |
| Twinsolution | Jan 2025 | AI and power-management chips | Analog Semiconductors | Unknown | $140M | Asia-Pacific | Unknown | None identified |
| Oritek | Jan 2025 | Smart-vehicle computing chips | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $140M | Asia-Pacific | Unknown | None identified |
| PNJ Semiconductor | Jan 2025 | SiC power-device designs for automotive and industrial systems | Power Semiconductors | Unknown | $694M | Asia-Pacific | Unknown | None identified |
| Zhcltech | Jan 2025 | TPU-style AI chips for data centers and large-model workloads | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $1,030M | Asia-Pacific | Unknown | None identified |
| Baya Systems | Jan 2025 | On-chip data-movement fabric and chiplet-system technology for AI infrastructure | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $36M | North America | Follow-on | Intel Capital |
| Mindgrove Technologies | Jan 2025 | Designs RISC-V SoCs for IoT and automotive electronics | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $8M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Peak XV Partners |
| Ubitium | Dec 2024 | Universal RISC-V processor company for CPU/GPU/DSP/FPGA-style workloads on one chip | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $3.7M | Europe | First financing | Runa Capital |
| Mindgrove Technologies | Dec 2024 | Indian fabless RISC-V microcontroller and vision SoC company | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $8M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Peak XV Partners |
| Agnit Semiconductors | Dec 2024 | GaN wafer/device company focused on RF applications | Power Semiconductors | Seed | $3.5M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | 3one4 Capital |
| Gemesys | Dec 2024 | Memristor-based fully analog AI chip startup | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $9.1M | Europe | First financing | Sony Innovation Fund; Amadeus APEX |
| Netrasemi | Dec 2024 | Edge IoT AI SoC company based on graph-stream parallel architecture | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $1.2M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None clearly tier-1 globally |
| HyperAccel | Dec 2024 | Generative AI inference processor IP and chip company | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $40M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Korea Investment Partners; Korea Development Bank; Mirae Asset; SBVA |
| Ookuma Diamond Device | Dec 2024 | Diamond semiconductor amplifier and power-electronics company | Power Semiconductors | Series A | $26.8M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Globis; Coral Capital; SMBC Venture Capital |
| Forefront RF | Dec 2024 | RF front-end module semiconductor company with tunable duplexer technology | Analog Semiconductors | Series A | $20.7M | Europe | Follow-on | Octopus Ventures; Cambridge Innovation Capital |
| Ayar Labs | Dec 2024 | In-package optical I/O chiplets and light-source semiconductor company for AI/HPC interconnect | Logic Semiconductors | Growth Equity | $155M | North America | Follow-on | Advent; AMD Ventures; Intel Capital; Nvidia; GlobalFoundries; Lockheed Martin Ventures |
| Iontra | Dec 2024 | RISC-V battery charge-control MCU and power-management semiconductor company | Power Semiconductors | Series C | $45M | North America | Follow-on | Volta Energy Technologies |
| Tenstorrent | Dec 2024 | RISC-V AI processor IP, chips, PCIe cards, workstations and servers | Logic Semiconductors | Series D+ | $693M | North America | Follow-on | Samsung Securities; Fidelity; Baillie Gifford; Bezos Expeditions; LG Technology Ventures; Hyundai |
| Azimuth AI | Nov 2024 | Custom SoC and ASIC company for smart-city, two-/three-wheeler, edge and embedded markets | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $11.5M | North America | Follow-on | Cyient |
| Axiado | Nov 2024 | Trusted control/compute SoC company for infrastructure security and management | Logic Semiconductors | Series C | $60M | North America | Follow-on | Samsung Catalyst Fund; Atreides; Crosslink |
| Enfabrica | Nov 2024 | High-bandwidth network-interface-controller fabric for accelerated compute clusters | Logic Semiconductors | Series C | $115M | North America | Follow-on | Spark Capital; Arm; Cisco Investments; Samsung Catalyst Fund; Sutter Hill |
| Panmnesia | Nov 2024 | CXL IP and switch-chip fabless startup | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $60M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Korea Investment Partners; KB Investment; InterVest |
| Lightmatter | Oct 2024 | Photonic interconnect and 3D-stacked photonic compute-connectivity semiconductor company | Logic Semiconductors | Series D+ | $400M | North America | Follow-on | T. Rowe Price; Fidelity; Google Ventures |
| CogniFiber | Aug 2024 | Fully optical analog neuromorphic processor startup | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $5M | Middle East | First financing | None clearly tier-1 globally |
| Rebellions | Aug 2024 | South Korean AI processor company; additional Series B funding | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $15M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Wa’ed Ventures / Saudi Aramco |
| Fractile | Aug 2024 | LLM inference chip startup combining memory and processing | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $15M | Europe | First financing | NATO Innovation Fund; Oxford Science Enterprises |
| Groq | Aug 2024 | Generative AI inference chip and platform company using LPU chips | Logic Semiconductors | Series D+ | $640M | North America | Follow-on | BlackRock; Neuberger Berman; Cisco Investments; Samsung Catalyst Fund |
| BigEndian Semiconductors | Jul 2024 | Surveillance camera SoC startup | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $3M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | Vertex Ventures |
| AttoTude | Jul 2024 | Semiconductor interconnect technology company for AI and hyperscale data centers | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $29M | North America | First financing | Sutter Hill Ventures; Canaan; Wing |
| Fabric Cryptography | Jul 2024 | Custom silicon company developing a Verifiable Processing Unit for cryptographic workloads | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $33M | North America | First financing | Blockchain Capital; Polygon Labs |
| DreamBig Semiconductor | Jul 2024 | Chiplet interconnect and DPU/SmartNIC accelerator chiplet company | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $75M | North America | Follow-on | Samsung Catalyst Fund; UMC Capital; Hanwha |
| Akeana | Jul 2024 | RISC-V processor and SoC IP/block company; borderline under IP exclusion | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $100M | North America | First financing | Kleiner Perkins; Mayfield; Fidelity |
| Morphing Machines | Jun 2024 | Many-core runtime-reconfigurable SoC platform company | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $2.8M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | None clearly tier-1 globally |
| Bitsensing | Jun 2024 | Radar chip/sensor systems company for automotive, traffic, and wellness markets | Sensor Semiconductors | Series B | $25M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Korea Development Bank; Industrial Bank of Korea |
| Axelera AI | Jun 2024 | Edge AI acceleration semiconductor company using SRAM-based digital in-memory compute | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $68M | Europe | Follow-on | Samsung Catalyst Fund; Invest-NL; EIC Fund |
| DeepX | Jun 2024 | On-device NPU and AI SoC company | Logic Semiconductors | Series C | $80.5M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | SkyLake Equity Partners |
| Blaize | Jun 2024 | Programmable graph-streaming processor company for edge AI | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $106M | North America | Follow-on | Franklin Templeton; Temasek; Mercedes-Benz; DENSO |
| Hailo | Jun 2024 | Edge AI processor and SoC/module company | Logic Semiconductors | Series C | $120M | Middle East | Follow-on | OurCrowd |
| Etched | Jun 2024 | Algorithm-specific ASIC company targeting transformer inference | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $120M | North America | First financing | Primary; Two Sigma Ventures; Hummingbird; Galaxy Digital |
| Rivos | May 2024 | RISC-V CPU/GPGPU data-center workload acceleration chip company | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $250M | North America | Follow-on | Intel Capital; MediaTek; Dell Technologies Capital; Walden Catalyst |
| SiMa.ai | May 2024 | Edge AI MLSoC and accelerator-chip company | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $70M | North America | Follow-on | Maverick Capital; Point72; Dell Technologies Capital; Fidelity |
| MetisX | May 2024 | Fabless CXL/memory-centric data-domain architecture chip company | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $44M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | STIC Ventures; Industrial Bank of Korea; Mirae Asset |
| Quintessent | Mar 2024 | Optical interconnect semiconductor startup using quantum-dot comb-laser technology | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $11.5M | North America | First financing | M Ventures; Sierra Ventures |
| Celestial AI | Mar 2024 | Photonic fabric semiconductor company for optical compute-to-compute and compute-to-memory connectivity | Logic Semiconductors | Series C | $175M | North America | Follow-on | Not fully disclosed in retrieved lines |
| Neural Propulsion Systems | Mar 2024 | Sensor semiconductor/sensing platform company for radar and autonomous applications | Sensor Semiconductors | Series B | $17.5M | North America | Follow-on | Not disclosed in retrieved source |
| SteerLight | Mar 2024 | Silicon-photonic lidar chip company | Sensor Semiconductors | Unknown | $3.5M | Europe | Follow-on | Stellantis Ventures; Bpifrance |
| e-peas Semiconductors | Mar 2024 | Ambient-energy and ultra-low-power power-management semiconductor company | Power Semiconductors | Unknown | $19M | Europe | Follow-on | Not disclosed in retrieved source |
| Efficient Computer | Mar 2024 | Reconfigurable dataflow processor startup for edge/embedded applications | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $16M | North America | First financing | Eclipse |
| Innatera Nanosystems | Mar 2024 | Neuromorphic processor company using analog/mixed-signal spiking neural networks | Logic Semiconductors | Series A | $16.3M | Europe | Follow-on | Invest-NL; EIC Fund |
| NeuReality | Mar 2024 | AI inference processing hardware based on network-addressable processing units | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $20M | Middle East | Follow-on | EIC Fund; OurCrowd |
| Taalas | Mar 2024 | AI chip startup developing silicon implementation flow for deep-learning models | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $50M | North America | First financing | Quiet Capital |
| Eliyan Corporation | Mar 2024 | Chiplet interconnect semiconductor company developing die-to-die and die-to-memory PHY technology | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $60M | North America | Follow-on | Samsung Catalyst Fund; Tiger Global; Intel Capital; SK Hynix |
| TopoLogic | Feb 2024 | Memory/storage semiconductor startup | Memory Semiconductors | Unknown | $4.7M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Not disclosed in retrieved source |
| sensiBel | Feb 2024 | Optical MEMS microphone and sensing technology company | Sensor Semiconductors | Unknown | $7.6M | Europe | Follow-on | Sennheiser; TRUMPF Venture |
| Amazec Photonics | Feb 2024 | Application-specific photonic IC and fiber-optic sensing startup | Sensor Semiconductors | Seed | $1.6M | Europe | First financing | None clearly tier-1 globally |
| Wise Integration | Feb 2024 | GaN power semiconductor and digital-control power IC company | Power Semiconductors | Series B | $16.2M | Europe | Follow-on | Not disclosed in retrieved source |
| Lotus Microsystems | Feb 2024 | Integrated power-conversion semiconductor company | Power Semiconductors | Unknown | $8.8M | Europe | Follow-on | Not disclosed in retrieved source |
| Point2 Technology | Feb 2024 | Mixed-signal SoCs for multi-terabit interconnects using active electrical cables | Analog Semiconductors | Series B | $22.6M | North America | Follow-on | Bosch Ventures; Molex |
| Uhnder | Feb 2024 | Software-defined digital radar chips and radar sensor modules | Sensor Semiconductors | Series D+ | $50M | North America | Follow-on | Qualcomm Ventures; Magna |
| Recogni | Feb 2024 | AI inference processor hardware and software for cloud, automotive, and AI vision workloads | Logic Semiconductors | Series C | $102M | North America | Follow-on | Mayfield; BMW i Ventures; Celesta Capital |
| SCALINX | Jan 2024 | Fabless mixed-signal SoC developer for ultra-high-speed ADC/DAC applications | Analog Semiconductors | Unknown | $37.2M | Europe | Follow-on | Bpifrance; Thales |
| QDI Systems | Jan 2024 | Quantum-dot X-ray and SWIR sensor technology company | Sensor Semiconductors | Series A | $5.4M | Europe | Follow-on | None clearly tier-1 globally |
| VoxelSensors | Jan 2024 | 3D perception sensor company for XR devices | Sensor Semiconductors | Seed | $3.3M | Europe | Follow-on | None clearly tier-1 globally |
| Semron | Jan 2024 | Analog in-memory compute chip startup using memcapacitor-based CapRAM | Logic Semiconductors | Seed | $7.9M | Europe | First financing | None clearly tier-1 globally |
| Mobilint | Jan 2024 | Edge AI NPU chip vendor with processor chips and accelerator hardware | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $15.3M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | KDB Capital / KDB Industrial Bank |
| Krutrim | Jan 2024 | Indian AI company planning data-center AI chips as part of an AI compute stack | Logic Semiconductors | Unknown | $50M | Asia-Pacific | First financing | Matrix Partners India |
| Rebellions | Jan 2024 | South Korean fabless AI processor company developing domain-specific inference chips | Logic Semiconductors | Series B | $124M | Asia-Pacific | Follow-on | Korea Development Bank; Pavilion Capital; KT |
INSIGHTS
These insights are drawn from the disclosed semiconductor funding dataset covering 2024, 2025, and year-to-date 2026. The dataset only includes qualifying equity rounds from pure-play semiconductor-device and wafer-foundry companies, so the observations below describe the investable public financing sample rather than every private or undisclosed semiconductor transaction.
- The semiconductor market’s headline acceleration is real, but the headline overstates the typical company’s experience. Total capital roughly doubled in the latest comparisons, while median rounds rose much more moderately. The real signal is not just “more money”; it is a sharper split between platform-scale companies and everyone else.
- Deal count is no longer a sufficient market-health indicator in semiconductors. In 2026 so far, the bottom half of deals captured only about 6% of capital. A market can show rising deal count and still be extremely tight for most startups.
- The market has shifted from invention risk toward execution risk. The largest checks are financing tape-outs, manufacturing readiness, system integration, customer deployment, and strategic supply rather than only initial technical exploration. This is what maturation looks like in a capital-intensive hardware category.
- The average round size is consistently misleading in this market. In 2026 so far, the average round is about $167M while the median is $50M. The average describes the upper tail more than the normal fundraising environment.
- The semiconductor market is becoming an AI infrastructure market in practice. Logic, optical I/O, chiplets, memory-compute, power delivery, and foundry capacity are being funded because they support AI scaling. Investors are not equally enthusiastic about every semiconductor category.
- Logic Semiconductors remain dominant, but the meaning of “logic” is changing. The most important logic rounds increasingly involve data movement, optical connectivity, chiplet fabrics, AI networking, and workload-specific acceleration. The category is less about generic processors and more about system-level AI constraints.
- Foundry Services should be separated analytically from venture-backed semiconductor-device categories. Rapidus makes foundry funding look huge in 2026, but one nationally strategic financing does not prove a broad foundry-startup wave. It proves that manufacturing capacity can attract industrial-policy-scale capital.
- Memory is gaining strategic relevance before it gains broad deal count. The small number of memory deals suggests investors are not funding commodity memory capacity. They are starting to fund architectures that relieve AI memory bottlenecks.
- Power Semiconductors have strong strategic logic but weaker capital-weighted momentum in 2026 so far. Investors recognize power delivery as a constraint, but they have not yet funded power companies at the same scale as compute, interconnect, and optical infrastructure companies.
- Sensor Semiconductors look like a selective conviction niche rather than a broad venture category. Sensor rounds can be meaningful, but the category does not show the same breadth or capital intensity as AI compute and interconnect. Platform-like sensor companies may still raise well, but the category is not leading the cycle.
- Analog Semiconductors are active but not central to the current capital wave. Analog rounds continue to appear, yet 2026 year-to-date capital is low. That suggests analog is being treated as product-specific rather than platform-defining.
- The semiconductor market’s regional pattern is best described as tri-regional concentration, not globalization. North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe matter. Latin America and Africa remain absent from the qualifying sample, while the Middle East appears intermittently.
- North America is reclaiming leadership in the freshest period. The region’s 2026 year-to-date capital and deal count are both sharply higher than the comparable 2025 period. This reverses the early-2025 Asia-Pacific-heavy pattern.
- Asia-Pacific’s 2025 strength was partly structural and partly distorted by large opaque Chinese financings. The region remains important in 2026, but the fall in capital share shows why early-2025 data should not be extrapolated mechanically. Disclosure quality should affect confidence in stage and investor comparisons.
- Europe is becoming more credible at scale, but it still trails North America in capital depth. Europe’s 2026 year-to-date capital is up strongly, yet European median deal size remains much lower than North America’s. The region is strongest where its companies connect directly to AI infrastructure bottlenecks.
- Strategic investors are one of the strongest credibility signals in semiconductors. NVIDIA, AMD, Intel Capital, Samsung Catalyst, Arm, Qualcomm Ventures, Alchip, Marvell, SoftBank, Sony, and other strategics appear where roadmap influence and ecosystem fit matter. In this market, the identity of the investor can matter almost as much as the amount raised.
- Repeat investor activity signals specialization more than herd behavior. The most active investors are not randomly chasing semiconductors; they are repeatedly backing adjacent bottlenecks in AI infrastructure. That makes repeat participation a useful signal of thesis depth.
- First-financing activity has rebounded in 2026, but the dollars still favor follow-ons. This means the startup pipeline is alive, while the capital-weighted market remains biased toward companies with prior validation. New entrants can get funded, but they need to map to a clear system necessity.
- The semiconductor market is increasingly barbell-shaped. One end contains infrastructure-scale companies raising hundreds of millions or billions. The other end contains early technical bets raising small or moderate rounds, with relatively little capital equality between the two.
- The $50M threshold has become less exceptional in semiconductors. In 2026 so far, nearly half of all qualifying rounds are above $50M. That shows semiconductor startups increasingly require growth-stage levels of capital earlier in their lives.
- Optical interconnect and photonics have moved from niche science to core infrastructure thesis. The number and size of optical-related rounds across 2025 and 2026 suggest that investors view bandwidth and switching as primary AI scaling constraints. This is one of the clearest places where technical novelty has become system necessity.
- Sovereign and national-strategic capital is becoming more important in the semiconductor market. Rapidus and several Asia-Pacific financings show that some semiconductor rounds are closer to industrial-policy financings than normal venture rounds. That changes how investors should compare rounds across regions.
- The strongest companies are increasingly defined by control points rather than component categories. Investors are rewarding companies that can control bandwidth, memory access, power density, compute throughput, switching, or manufacturing capacity. The most useful forecasting rule is to separate technical novelty from unavoidable system necessity.
This chart, featured in our semiconductor industry deck, shows how advanced foundry node manufacturing technology has evolved over time
OUR METHODOLOGY TO BUILD THIS TRACKER
We built this semiconductor funding tracker by reviewing publicly disclosed equity rounds raised by pure-play semiconductor-device and wafer-foundry companies from January 2024 through May 2026. A company counts as pure-play when more than 80% of its activity is dedicated to selling semiconductor devices or semiconductor wafer-manufacturing services.
We applied four core filters to build the dataset. First, we only included equity rounds, so grants, debt, structured financings, SPAC transactions, acquisitions, and business combinations are excluded unless the source explicitly treated the transaction as an equity financing. Second, we only counted rounds of $300K or more. Third, we only kept pure-play semiconductor companies, which means we excluded equipment, materials, EDA, semiconductor IP-only vendors, packaging/test-only services, distributors, EMS providers, and end-product OEMs. Fourth, every entry had to be confirmed by a direct company announcement, a press release, a tier-1 media report, a specialized semiconductor source, or a relevant regional publication.
We kept disclosed-amount deals even when the stage was unknown, because excluding those rounds would remove real capital from the market view. We excluded undisclosed-amount rounds because including them would distort dollar-based metrics such as total capital, average round size, median round size, category share, regional share, and concentration ratios.
The final sample contains 60 disclosed deals in 2024, 63 disclosed deals in 2025, and 42 disclosed deals in year-to-date 2026. Every average, median, share, stage split, regional split, category split, and concentration ratio is computed on that disclosed qualifying sample. Private rounds that were never publicly announced, undisclosed-size financings, and deals announced only in sources not captured by this research pass are necessarily missing, which is a known limitation of any public-only semiconductor funding tracker.
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