Which startups have raised the most funding in the semiconductor industry?
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The semiconductor industry is one of the most capital-intensive startup markets in the world, with companies raising billions to build AI chips, memory, photonics, foundries, automotive processors, power semiconductors, and edge AI hardware.
This ranking is a constantly refreshed list of the top startups in the semiconductor industry, ordered by cumulative funding raised, and we update it every month.
The goal is simple: help founders, investors, and analysts see where the largest pools of semiconductor capital are going.
And if you want to better understand this new industry, you can download our pitch covering the semiconductor industry.
A quick summary table
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Most funded startup | Yangtze Memory Technologies, with $25.3B raised |
| Second most funded startup | Cerebras Systems, with $9.3B raised |
| Largest funding round | Cerebras Systems, $6.4B IPO in May 2026 |
| Median funding | About $338M across the reliable semiconductor startup set |
| Share of funding captured by the top 10 | About 62% of total funding in this ranking |
| Median time since last round | About 19 months |
| Startups that raised funding in the last 12 months | 34 semiconductor startups |
| AI semiconductor funding concentration | AI chip, AI interconnect, and AI networking companies represent a major share of recent large rounds |
| Semiconductor IPO activity | Public-market paths remain common among memory, foundry, sensor, and infrastructure companies |
| Semiconductor manufacturing depth | Memory, foundry, and wafer infrastructure companies account for a large share of total capital raised |
This chart, featured in our semiconductor industry deck, shows annual venture capital investment in semiconductor startups
Top startups in the semiconductor industry ranked by total funding raised
Here is an updated table that ranks the top startups in the semiconductor industry based on the total amount of funding they have raised to date.
The table also includes the total number of funding rounds, the date and size of the latest round, the financing type (e.g. Series A, equity financing), key investors, the startup’s current status (active, IPO, acquired, or shut down), and a confidence score based on the data collected (we excluded startups with very low data confidence, to make sure everything is reliable).
If you're interested in knowing how much these startups are worth, you can check our list of the top startups in the semiconductor industry ranked by valuation.
| # | Startup | What They Do | Total Raised ($) | Total Rounds | Last Round Date | Last Round Amount ($) | Last Round Type | Key Investors | Current Stage | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yangtze Memory Technologies | 3D NAND memory manufacturer | $25.3B | 2 | April 2025 | $1.3B | Strategic equity | Yangyuan Zhihui, ABC Financial Asset Investment, CCB Financial Asset Investment | Active | Partial |
| 2 | Cerebras Systems | Wafer-scale AI chips | $9.3B | 10 | May 2026 | $6.4B | IPO | Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Barclays | IPO | Strong |
| 3 | ChangXin Memory Technologies | DRAM memory manufacturer | $5.0B | 6 | March 2024 | $1.5B | Pre-IPO | GigaDevice, Hefei state investors, CCB Financial Asset Investment | Active | Strong |
| 4 | Horizon Robotics | Smart-vehicle AI chips | $3.7B | 6 | September 2025 | $821M | PIPE / Top-up placement | Alibaba, Baidu, Intel Capital | IPO | Partial |
| 5 | Hua Hong Semiconductor | Specialty wafer foundry services | $3.3B | 2 | August 2023 | $3.0B | IPO / A-share listing | Tongfang Guoxin, Cypress Semiconductor Technology, Public investors | IPO | Strong |
| 6 | GTA Semiconductor | Automotive analog IC foundry | $3.1B | 5 | December 2025 | Undisclosed | Series D+ | CEC Smart Fund, CLP CICC, Xiamen Venture Capital | Active | Strong |
| 7 | GlobalFoundries | Global contract chip foundry | $2.1B | 2 | October 2021 | $1.4B | IPO | Mubadala, AMD, Public investors | IPO | Partial |
| 8 | Unisoc | Mobile and connectivity chipsets | $1.9B | 9 | December 2024 | $276M | Private Equity | Oriza Puhua, state-backed funds | Active | Partial |
| 9 | Groq | AI inference processors | $1.8B | 5 | September 2025 | $750M | Series E | Disruptive, BlackRock, Neuberger Berman | Active | Strong |
| 10 | Moore Threads | China GPU chips | $1.7B | 6 | December 2025 | $1.1B | IPO | Shanghai Guosheng, 5Y Capital, Sequoia China | IPO | Partial |
| 11 | Nexchip | 12-inch wafer foundry | $1.7B | 1 | May 2023 | $1.7B | IPO | Public investors | IPO | Partial |
| 12 | Biren Technology | AI GPGPU accelerators | $1.5B | 4 | January 2026 | $717M | IPO | Qiming, Ping An, IDG Capital | IPO | Partial |
| 13 | ASR Microelectronics | Wireless communication SoCs | $1.4B | 6 | January 2022 | $1.1B | IPO | Public investors | IPO | Partial |
| 14 | Montage Technology | Memory interface chips | $1.4B | 7 | February 2026 | $901M | IPO | Public investors, CITIC Securities, Intel Capital | IPO | Strong |
| 15 | GigaDevice | Flash memory and MCUs | $1.3B | 3 | January 2026 | $600M | IPO | Public investors, GIC, Walden International | IPO | Strong |
| 16 | Tenstorrent | AI and RISC-V chips | $1.2B | 10 | December 2024 | $693M | Series D | Samsung Securities, AFW Partners, LG | Active | Partial |
| 17 | Iluvatar CoreX | AI GPUs and accelerators | $1.2B+ | 8 | January 2026 | $475M | IPO | Public investors, Huatai, ZTE | IPO | Partial |
| 18 | Cambricon | AI accelerator chips | $1.0B+ | 5 | September 2025 | $559M | PIPE | GF Fund, UBS, China Universal | IPO | Partial |
| 19 | Astera Labs | AI data-center connectivity chips | $943M | 5 | March 2024 | $711M | IPO | Fidelity, Intel Capital, Sutter Hill | IPO | Partial |
| 20 | MetaX Integrated Circuits | AI GPU chips | $900M+ | 6 | December 2025 | $596M | IPO | China Structural Reform Fund, Matrix Partners China, HongShan | IPO | Partial |
| 21 | Ayar Labs | Co-packaged optical interconnects | $870M | 6 | March 2026 | $500M | Series E | Neuberger Berman, NVIDIA, Advent | Active | Strong |
| 22 | Rebellions | AI inference chips | $850M | 6 | March 2026 | $400M | Pre-IPO | Mirae Asset Financial Group, Korea National Growth Fund | Active | Strong |
| 23 | Lightmatter | Photonic AI interconnects | $822M | 6 | October 2024 | $400M | Series D | T. Rowe Price, Fidelity, GV | Active | Strong |
| 24 | Graphcore | AI intelligence processors | $767M | 8 | December 2020 | $222M | Series E | Ontario Teachers’, Fidelity, Schroders | Acquired | Partial |
| 25 | Bestechnic | Smart audio SoCs | $744M | 5 | December 2020 | $744M | IPO | Public investors, undisclosed private investors | IPO | Partial |
| 26 | Black Sesame Technologies | Autonomous-driving AI chips | $702M | 8 | January 2026 | $69M | PIPE | Shanghai Daixu, SummitView Capital | IPO | Partial |
| 27 | Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing | Taiwan memory and foundry chips | $690M | 2 | December 2021 | $260M | IPO | Public investors | IPO | Strong |
| 28 | OmniVision Technologies | CMOS image sensors | $681M | 2 | January 2026 | $616M | IPO | Public investors, Qatar Investment Authority, GIC | IPO | Partial |
| 29 | MatX | LLM AI chips | $605M | 3 | February 2026 | $500M | Series B | Jane Street, Situational Awareness, Spark Capital | Active | Strong |
| 30 | SemiDrive | Automotive SoC chips | $601M | 6 | May 2026 | $100M | Series C | Jiangsu Industrial Technology Investment, Yizhuang State Investment, Shaanxi Auto Hongde | Active | Partial |
| 31 | Celestial AI | Photonic AI interconnects | $586M | 5 | March 2025 | $250M | Series C1 | Fidelity, BlackRock, AMD Ventures | Active | Strong |
| 32 | GalaxyCore | Image sensor chips | $556M | 3 | August 2021 | $554M | IPO | Public investors, Sequoia Capital, Walden International | IPO | Strong |
| 33 | Navitas Semiconductor | GaN/SiC power semiconductors | $550M | 6 | November 2025 | $100M | Private placement | Not publicly disclosed | IPO | Partial |
| 34 | Ambiq | Ultra-low-power edge AI chips | $481M | 15 | July 2025 | $96M | IPO | Taiwania Capital, Kleiner Perkins, EDBI | IPO | Partial |
| 35 | d-Matrix | Data-center inference chips | $450M | 4 | November 2025 | $275M | Series C | Bullhound Capital, Triatomic Capital, Temasek | Active | Partial |
| 36 | indie Semiconductor | Automotive semiconductor platforms | $433M | 6 | June 2021 | $400M | SPAC / PIPE | Thunder Bridge II, PIPE investors | IPO | Partial |
| 37 | Ampere Computing | Arm server CPUs | $426M | 4 | March 2021 | $300M | Corporate Equity | Oracle, Carlyle, Arm | Acquired | Partial |
| 38 | Valens Semiconductor | High-speed connectivity chips | $407M | 6 | September 2021 | $240M | SPAC / PIPE | PTK Acquisition, PIPE investors | IPO | Partial |
| 39 | Amlogic | Multimedia SoC chips | $375M | 8 | August 2019 | $224M | IPO | Public investors | IPO | Partial |
| 40 | Axelera AI | Edge AI accelerators | $370M+ | 4 | February 2026 | $250M+ | Growth funding | Innovation Industries, BlackRock, SiteGround Capital | Active | Strong |
| 41 | Rivos | RISC-V AI servers | $370M | 2 | April 2024 | $250M | Series A-3 | Matrix Capital, Intel Capital, MediaTek | Acquired | Partial |
| 42 | Loongson Technology | Domestic CPU processors | $367M | 2 | June 2022 | $367M | IPO | Public investors | IPO | Partial |
| 43 | SiMa.ai | Edge AI SoC platform | $355M | 7 | August 2025 | $85M | Series C | Maverick Capital, StepStone Group, Fidelity | Active | Partial |
| 44 | Innovium | Cloud Ethernet switching silicon | $350M | 5 | July 2020 | $170M | Series E | DFJ Growth, BlackRock, Premji Invest | Acquired | Partial |
| 45 | Hailo | Edge AI accelerators | $341M | 6 | April 2024 | $120M | Series C Extension | Zisapel family, Gil Agmon, OurCrowd | Active | Strong |
| 46 | Canaan | ASIC bitcoin mining chips | $335M+ | 6 | November 2025 | $72M | Registered Direct / Strategic Equity | BH Digital, Galaxy Digital, Weiss Asset Management | IPO | Partial |
| 47 | Innoscience | GaN power semiconductors | $315M | 7 | December 2024 | $180M | IPO | Public investors | IPO | Partial |
| 48 | Positron AI | AI inference hardware | $305M | 3 | February 2026 | $230M | Series B | ARENA, Jump Trading, Unless | Active | Full |
| 49 | Tachyum | Universal AI/HPC processor | $300M+ | 3 | October 2025 | $220M | Series C | Undisclosed European investor | Active | Partial |
| 50 | Upscale AI | AI networking infrastructure chips | $300M+ | 2 | January 2026 | $200M | Series A | Tiger Global, Premji Invest, Xora Innovation | Active | Strong |
| 51 | Nuvia | Arm server CPUs | $293M | 2 | September 2020 | $240M | Series B | Mithril Capital, BlackRock, Fidelity | Acquired | Full |
| 52 | Mythic | Analog AI processors | $290M | 5 | December 2025 | $125M | Series D-style | DCVC, Honda, Lockheed Martin | Active | Partial |
| 53 | Enfabrica | AI networking silicon fabric | $290M | 3 | November 2024 | $115M | Series C | Spark Capital, Cisco Investments, Arm | Active | Partial |
| 54 | Blaize | Edge AI compute chips | $272M | 5 | November 2025 | $30M | PIPE | Polar Asset Management Partners | IPO | Partial |
| 55 | Aquantia | High-speed Ethernet transceivers | $270M | 10 | November 2017 | $71M | IPO | Credit Suisse, GlobalFoundries, Cisco | Acquired | Strong |
| 56 | X-FAB Silicon Foundries | Analog mixed-signal specialty foundry | $266M | 1 | April 2017 | $266M | IPO | Public investors | IPO | Strong |
| 57 | Arbe Robotics | 4D imaging radar chipsets | $255M | 8 | January 2026 | $19M | Public offering | AWM Investment Company | IPO | Strong |
| 58 | pSemi | RF front-end semiconductor chips | $255M | 6 | August 2012 | $77M | IPO | Morgenthaler, Ridgewood Capital, Public investors | Acquired | Partial |
| 59 | FuriosaAI | Datacenter AI accelerators | $246M | 4 | July 2025 | $125M | Series C bridge | Korea Development Bank, IBK, Kakao Investment | Active | Partial |
| 60 | Cornami | Many-core privacy computing processors | $236M | 24 | August 2025 | $1M | Series D-II | Impact Venture Capital, Elysium, Cendana | Active | Partial |
| 61 | Telink Semiconductor | Wireless IoT chips | $231M | 5 | February 2026 | $25M | Private placement | Public-market investors | IPO | Partial |
| 62 | Kneron | Edge AI NPU chips | $226M | 10 | September 2023 | $49M | Series B extension | Foxconn HH-CTBC, Alltek, Horizons Ventures | Active | Partial |
| 63 | Empower Semiconductor | AI processor power delivery | $215M | 3 | September 2025 | $140M | Series D | Fidelity, Maverick Silicon, CapitalG | Active | Full |
| 64 | Morse Micro | Wi-Fi HaLow IoT chips | $208M | 6 | September 2025 | $59M | Series C | MegaChips, NRFC, Blackbird | Active | Partial |
| 65 | Uhnder | Digital imaging radar chips | $195M | 4 | February 2024 | $50M | Series D | ACME Capital, Magna, Qualcomm Ventures | Active | Partial |
| 66 | Espressif Systems | Wi-Fi Bluetooth IoT chips | $185M | 3 | July 2019 | $182M | IPO | Public investors, SAIF Partners, Intel Education Accelerator | IPO | Partial |
| 67 | Kioxia | NAND flash memory | $184M | 1 | December 2024 | $184M | IPO | Public investors | IPO | Strong |
| 68 | Retym | Coherent DSP networking chips | $180M | 4 | March 2025 | $75M | Series D | Spark Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Fidelity | Active | Partial |
| 69 | EFFECT Photonics | Integrated coherent optical chips | $174M | 12 | June 2025 | $24M | Series D extension | Innovation Industries, Invest-NL, existing investors | Active | Partial |
| 70 | Atmosic Technologies | Energy-harvesting wireless IoT chips | $162M | 4 | March 2025 | $40M | Series D | Sutter Hill Ventures, Clear Ventures, Quantum Innovation Fund | Active | Full |
| 71 | Everactive | Batteryless industrial IoT sensors | $161M | 11 | August 2024 | $11M | Later-stage equity | Not publicly disclosed | Active | Partial |
| 72 | Untether AI | At-memory AI accelerators | $152M | 5 | July 2021 | $125M | Series B | Tracker Capital, Intel Capital, CPP Investments | Shutdown | Partial |
| 73 | StarFive Technology | RISC-V chip solutions | $146M | 5 | February 2025 | Undisclosed | Strategic investment | HKIC | Active | Partial |
| 74 | EnCharge AI | Analog in-memory AI chips | $144M | 3 | February 2025 | $100M+ | Series B | Tiger Global, Samsung Ventures, HH-CTBC | Active | Full |
| 75 | Achronix Semiconductor | AI FPGA and eFPGA IP | $142M | 6 | April 2014 | Undisclosed | Series D | New Science Ventures, Easton Capital, Argonaut | Active | Partial |
| 76 | Goodix Technology | Touch and biometric chips | $132M | 2 | October 2016 | $132M | IPO | Public investors, MediaTek | IPO | Partial |
| 77 | Gowin Semiconductor | FPGA devices | $132M | 2 | May 2022 | $132M | Series B | Guangzhou Bay Area Semiconductor Industry Group | Active | Strong |
| 78 | eSilicon | ASIC design and IP services | $118M | 12 | July 2017 | $15M | Later equity | TPG, Crosspoint, Investor Growth Capital | Acquired | Partial |
| 79 | InvenSense | MEMS motion sensor chips | $113M | 4 | November 2011 | $75M | IPO | Sierra Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Artiman Ventures | Acquired | Strong |
| 80 | Beken | Wireless IoT chips | $96M | 2 | April 2019 | $96M | IPO | Public investors, WK Technology Fund, Spinnotec | IPO | Partial |
| 81 | Tower Semiconductor | Specialty analog chip foundry | $83M | 4 | August 2023 | Undisclosed | Post-IPO | Yorkville Advisors, Westpac, Public investors | IPO | Partial |
| 82 | Flex Logix | Embedded FPGA IP | $82M | 4 | March 2021 | $55M | Series D | Mithril Capital, Lux Capital, Eclipse Ventures | Acquired | Partial |
| 83 | Ambarella | Edge AI video processors | $74M | 4 | October 2012 | $36M | IPO | Benchmark, Walden International, Public investors | IPO | Partial |
| 84 | Alif Semiconductor | AI-enabled microcontrollers | $72M | 2 | December 2019 | $50M | Series B | Not fully disclosed | Active | Strong |
| 85 | Esperanto Technologies | RISC-V AI chips | $63M | 3 | November 2018 | $58M | Series B | Western Digital Capital, GlobalFoundries | Active | Partial |
| 86 | Rockchip | Multimedia processor SoCs | $58M | 2 | February 2020 | $58M | IPO | Public investors, Spinnotec, Fortune Capital | IPO | Partial |
| 87 | Kinara | Edge AI neural processors | $54M | 2 | September 2021 | $35M | Series B | Tiger Global, Exfinity, Western Digital | Acquired | Partial |
| 88 | Rain AI | Neuromorphic AI chips | $38M | 3 | May 2024 | $8M | Series A extension | Prosperity7, Sam Altman, Catapult | Active | Partial |
| 89 | GreenWaves Technologies | Ultra-low-power RISC-V AI chips | $30M | 3 | February 2023 | $22M | Series B | Innovacom, Thales, Soitec | Active | Partial |
| 90 | GrAI Matter Labs | Neuromorphic edge AI chips | $29M | 2 | November 2020 | $14M | Financing / Series A extension | iBionext, Bpifrance, Celeste Management | Acquired | Strong |
This market map, featured in our semiconductor industry deck, highlights top companies and startups in the semiconductor industry
Key funding trends in the semiconductor industry
Insights
- The semiconductor industry is extremely concentrated: the top 10 companies in this ranking capture about 62% of the total funding, led by memory, foundry, and AI compute platforms.
- Cerebras Systems alone has raised $9.3B, which shows how wafer-scale AI compute can attract capital at a level that few semiconductor startups can match.
- AI chips, AI networking, and photonic AI interconnect companies now form one of the clearest funding clusters in semiconductors, with Groq, Ayar Labs, Lightmatter, Celestial AI, MatX, and Positron AI all raising large rounds.
- Memory and wafer infrastructure remain strategic capital magnets, with Yangtze Memory Technologies, ChangXin Memory Technologies, Hua Hong Semiconductor, GTA Semiconductor, and Nexchip all raising more than $1.7B.
- Public markets are still a major funding route in semiconductors, especially for companies in memory, foundry services, sensors, connectivity chips, and power semiconductors.
- The median company in this ranking has raised about $338M, far below the multi-billion-dollar leaders, which shows how a few mega-funded semiconductor companies strongly skew the market average.
- Recent funding remains active, with 34 companies in this ranking raising capital in the last 12 months, especially in AI accelerators, automotive chips, power semiconductors, and connectivity.
- Mid-stage AI hardware rounds are unusually large: MatX, Positron AI, EnCharge AI, and Upscale AI show that newer semiconductor companies can raise hundreds of millions before reaching late-stage scale.
As this chart shows, and as featured in our semiconductor industry deck, search interest in semiconductors has been rising steadily
A few word about our methodology
As you can see, we built a database that ranks startups in the semiconductor industry based on their total cumulative fundraising. To create this ranking, we reviewed many sources and cross-checked information across multiple places.
Whenever possible, we prioritized official company communications, since company announcements, IPO filings, prospectuses, and investor releases are usually the most reliable sources for semiconductor funding amounts. When those were not available, we relied on reputable industry sources such as TechCrunch, Crunchbase, Financial Times or Forbes (to name a few).
We excluded random blogs, unverified websites, and any sources that could not be validated.
When funding rounds were announced in other currencies such as euros, Swiss francs, Singapore dollars, Australian dollars, yuan, won, yen, or rupees, we converted them into approximate USD equivalents for consistency.
Sometimes different sources report slightly different numbers, or the exact round size is not fully disclosed. In those cases, we flag the uncertainty and assign a confidence label to each startup, visible in the last column.
Here is what they mean.
Full confidence: The company’s equity fundraising history can be reconstructed completely from public sources. The rounds, dates, amounts, and key investors are clearly identified, with no meaningful gaps.
Strong confidence: The fundraising history is largely complete and reliable. There may be a small missing detail, such as incomplete investor information or a minor round with limited data, but the overall record is clear.
Partial confidence: The main fundraising rounds can be identified, but the record is incomplete or somewhat mixed. Some rounds may be missing or certain funding events may be difficult to separate clearly.
Low confidence: Public information is too limited, inconsistent, or ambiguous to reliably reconstruct the company’s equity fundraising history.
When the confidence level is too low, we take a conservative approach and exclude the company from the ranking. We don’t want to include data that cannot be reliably verified.
This reflects how we conduct all our research, including the work behind our report covering the semiconductor industry.
In a world where LLMs hallucinate and unreliable information is everywhere, our goal is simple: provide data you can trust.
If you want the full detail on a specific calculation, feel free to contact us and we will gladly explain.
Finally, know that we update the dataset once per month, so come back here if you need fresh information.
This chart, featured in our semiconductor industry deck, looks at TSMC’s strategy in semiconductors
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