BlackRock backs Dutch AI chipmaker Axelera in $250M round for power-efficient inference chips
Dutch AI chip startup Axelera AI raised more than $250M from investors including BlackRock to build power-efficient semiconductors designed for running AI models after training. Axelera differentiates by targeting the inference phase, where efficiency gains translate directly to reduced operating costs at scale.
BlackRock's participation signals growing institutional capital interest in hardware alternatives to Nvidia focused on specific AI compute workloads.
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