Axelera AI

Axelera AI, incubated by blockchain company Bitfury Group in 2019, develops chipsets that accelerate AI and machine learning algorithms at the edge. The chips aim to bring the data processing away from servers and to the devices generating the data by offering the same computing power. Axelera primarily targets the retail, manufacturing, smart cities, and drone industries— possibly due to the popularity of using edge devices with AI features in these industries.

The startup’s technology uses a custom dataflow architecture with multicore in-memory computing, which can improve processing times by reducing the data travel between memory circuits and processors. The company further claims its chips can run AI models at a fraction of the electricity consumption and at a lower price than competitors’ AI hardware.

The company announced its first commercial chip will launch in 2024. Known as the Metis AIPU Platform, it will scale to provide performance equivalent to “hundreds” of TOPS, thanks to a number of enhancements made to its in-memory compute engine.

Key customers and partnerships

In January 2023, Axelera AI announced that it has chosen SECO, a European computer hardware manufacturer, as the sole European developer of edge AI solutions for its Metis AI platform. Axelera plans to leverage SECO's edge computing and edge-to-cloud connectivity technologies to complement its Metis AI processing unit for edge devices. Additionally, CLEA, SECO’s IoT-AI platform, will enable Axelera to transfer AI-processed data to the cloud, facilitate the launch of new business models, and deploy existing AI-based models for faster inference functionalities at the edge.

As of May 2023, The startup stated that more than 350 customers have shown an interest in using its platform. More than 90 of those have requested a sample of its chip for testing, and more than 50 have signed up for its early access program.