Ex-Intel exec Raja Koduri’s OXMIQ raises $35 million to build licensable AI chip architecture – The Economic Times

Hyderabad: AI chip architecture startup OXMIQ, founded by former Intel graphics chief Raja Koduri, has raised $35 million in a Series A funding round to commercialise a licensable graphics processing unit (GPU) architecture that it says will allow companies and governments to build custom AI chips without developing them from scratch.

The round, co-led by Samsung Catalyst Fund and Fundomo, takes the company’s total funding to $60 million. Existing investors MediaTek, Pegatron Venture Capital, CDIB-TEN, Darwin Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital, AM Intelligence Labs and Intel Capital also participated.

Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Campbell, California, with engineering teams in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, OXMIQ is building what Koduri describes as an “Arm for AI GPUs”. Just as Arm Holdings licenses CPU designs, OXMIQ aims to license GPU intellectual property, through its flagship product OxCore, enabling customers to build custom AI processors instead of relying solely on Nvidia or investing billions in developing their own silicon. The company is targeting semiconductor firms, neocloud providers, AI infrastructure builders and governments pursuing sovereign AI programmes.

The Series A funding will be used to complete OxCore by the end of this year or early next year before customer deployments and commercial silicon tape-outs.

Speaking to ET, Koduri said OXMIQ was founded to tackle the rising cost of AI compute, arguing that countries such as India would need to own critical AI chip IP to make AI infrastructure affordable at scale.

“India cannot play in AI without taking control of the cost of it. AI compute costs would need to fall by 50-100 times to drive mass adoption,” he said adding that chip design is where 92% of margins lie.