Monday, September 28, 2026
Tech Beat
Sep 28, 2026, 3:29 PMHardware

SiMa.ai Raises $150 Million, Reaches $1.45 Billion Valuation

SiMa.ai raises $150 million at a $1.45 billion valuation to advance edge AI chips for robots, drones, cameras and humanoid robots at the edge.

Listen to this briefingAudio briefing

Summary

SiMa.ai announced a $150 million Series C on September 28, 2026, valuing the physical AI chip startup at $1.45 billion. Fidelity Management & Research Company and Amplify co-led the round, joined by Alter Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital and StepStone Group. Total funding now exceeds $500 million. PitchBook valued SiMa.ai at $960 million after its $85 million Series B in July 2025.

Founded in 2018 by former Groq COO Krishna Rangasayee, SiMa.ai develops energy-efficient chips and software that run AI directly on robots, drones, cameras and other devices, avoiding cloud data transfers. The company is targeting the growing physical AI market, including humanoid robots, by pitching lower latency and more affordable chips than Nvidia GPUs. Its next challenge is converting those claimed performance and cost advantages into market share.

Positives

  • The $150 million Series C lifts SiMa.ai’s valuation to $1.45 billion and total capital raised above $500 million.
  • Fidelity Management & Research Company and Amplify co-led the round alongside three additional institutional investors.
  • SiMa.ai’s chips process AI locally, reducing the need to transfer device data to and from the cloud.
  • Energy efficiency, low latency and lower claimed costs than Nvidia GPUs could strengthen SiMa.ai’s physical AI offering.
  • Robots, drones, cameras and humanoid robots give SiMa.ai several potential markets for its chips and software.

Risks & concerns

  • Nvidia GPUs remain the comparison point SiMa.ai must beat on affordability while delivering competitive physical AI performance.
  • Market capture remains an ambition, with no customer, revenue or deployment figures disclosed.
  • SiMa.ai’s strategy depends on converting claimed energy, latency and pricing advantages into adoption across physical AI devices.
Primary sourceTechCrunchhttps://techcrunch.com/2026/09/28/physical-ai-chip-developer-sima-ai-hits-1-45b-valuation/
Read full article
Editorial note: Tech Beat summarizes and analyzes third-party reporting. The source link is the authoritative article. This page does not reproduce the full source text.

More From The Wire

HardwareSep 1

AI is redefining the workforce — and most planning models aren’t

HardwareSep 1

Introducing @huggingface/kernels: 200+ WebGPU Kernels for Local AI

HardwareAug 31

GigaPath-Flash and GigaTIME-Flash: Toward population-scale