London AI Chip Startup Fractile Targets £160m to Rival Nvidia
UK-based Fractile is negotiating a £160 million funding round to scale its SRAM-based AI inference chips. The startup aims to challenge Nvidia's market dominance alongside a growing wave of British semiconductor ventures.
London-based AI chip startup Fractile is in negotiations to raise £160 million at an £800 million valuation, with backing from venture capital firm Accel. Founded in 2022, the company uses an SRAM-based architecture to run AI inference faster and cheaper than traditional GPU designs. The startup already boasts notable backers, including former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and NATO's Innovation Fund.
Fractile is part of a growing wave of British semiconductor companies challenging Nvidia's dominance in the AI hardware space. Like fellow UK startup Olix, which recently raised £175 million, Fractile relies on static random access memory instead of standard GPU architectures to target AI inference. This technical approach focuses on efficiency at a time when Nvidia faces increasing scrutiny over the cost and power consumption of running trained AI models in production.
To support its expansion, Fractile plans to invest £100 million over three years to build new hardware engineering facilities in London and Bristol. While the UK chip sector shows immense promise, it also carries historical risks, as demonstrated by the SoftBank acquisition of Graphcore below its total funding. However, with a team composed of veterans from Graphcore, Nvidia, and Imagination Technologies, Fractile aims to establish the UK as a major hub for AI chip development.