Intel Capital participated in SiFive’s recent Series C funding round. The investment was revealed at the Intel Capital Global Summit, at which SiFive CEO Naveed Sherwani pushed for the democratization of the semiconductor industry.
SiFive’s hardware designs leverage the body of software and tools available from the open-source community under the guidance of the RISC-V Foundation, dramatically reducing the cost of developing custom silicon. RISC-V was born from the dire need to address the skyrocketing cost of designing and manufacturing increasingly complex new chip architectures. System designers can use the SiFive Freedom platforms and DesignShare catalog to focus on their own differentiated processor without having the overhead of developing a modern SoC, fabric or software infrastructure.
“We have long led the call for a revolution in the semiconductor industry, and believe SiFive, and our technologies, demonstrate a significant path forward for the industry,” says SiFive CEO Naveed Sherwani. “This investment by Intel Capital will enable SiFive to empower any individual or company to produce a silicon solution that meets their needs, quickly and affordably.”
“RISC-V offers a fresh approach to low power microcontrollers combined with agile development tools that have the potential to help reduce SoC development time and cost significantly,” says Raja Koduri, senior vice president of the Core and Visual Computing Group, general manager of edge computing solutions and chief architect at Intel Corporation. “SiFive’s cloud-based SaaS approach provides another level of flexibility and ease for design teams, and we look forward to exploring its benefits.”
In April, SiFive announced it had raised USD50.6 million in Series C funding led by existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Spark Capital and Osage University Partners, as well as new investors Chengwei Capital, Huami, SK Telecom and Western Digital.
