In 2022, Rivos faced legal battles when Apple sued the company for alleged trade secret violations, claiming Rivos hired Apple engineers and used confidential information to develop rival chips. However, Rivos refuted the accusations, counter-suing Apple for unfair competition. The dispute concluded with a settlement in February, coinciding with the resolution of related litigation involving Apple engineers hired by Rivos.
Now, with the legal turmoil behind them, Rivos is refocusing on bringing its chipset technology to market, according to CEO Puneet Kumar.
“Rivos aims to develop industry-leading, power-efficient, high-performance chips,” Kumar stated. “We’re eager to target customers seeking data-driven solutions.”
A significant new funding round will support these efforts. Rivos recently announced a Series A funding extension, raising over $250 million. Matrix Capital Management led the oversubscribed round, with participation from industry giants such as Intel and MediaTek, among others.
This marks a notable turnaround for Rivos, which faced challenges in fundraising and recruitment amid the Apple lawsuit. Despite setbacks, the company is now poised to advance its chipset technology.
Rivos’ primary objective is to build chips tailored for servers capable of handling intensive data analytics and AI workloads, including generative AI tasks. These chips utilize the RISC-V open standard instruction set architecture (ISA), offering an alternative to existing ISAs licensed from incumbents like Arm or Intel.
Kumar highlighted the innovative features of Rivos’ chip, including a data parallel accelerator designed to accelerate AI and big data computations. Manufactured using TSMC’s advanced 3nm fabrication process, Rivos’ chip boasts cutting-edge technology comparable to Apple’s M3 chipset series.
In addition to chip development, Rivos is working on self-contained data center hardware based on the Open Compute Project modular standard. The company is also developing a software stack for programming the chip, facilitating seamless deployment of customer workloads.
While Rivos faces stiff competition in the custom chip market, Kumar remains optimistic about the company’s prospects. With substantial funding and a focus on innovation, Rivos is positioned to navigate the competitive landscape and drive growth in the burgeoning AI and data analytics sectors.
