Vinci, a Palo Alto startup, said it raised $36 million to build software that makes chip and hardware design faster. The money will help the company grow its team and improve its simulation tools.
The software uses Vinci’s own AI model to run simulations much faster than usual. The company will first focus on simulating heat, because advanced AI chips produce a lot of heat and need careful cooling.
Vinci’s CEO said the software avoids the common errors seen in large language models and can run at many stages of the chip design process. The company is testing the product with several big chip firms and ten companies have already benchmarked the software.
The Series A round was led by Xora Innovation, with Khosla Ventures and Eclipse also investing, bringing Vinci’s total funding to $46 million. Vinci has about 25 employees and plans to charge customers based on how much they use the software.