Nuvacore, a six-month-old semiconductor startup that has yet to produce a product, is raising hundreds of millions of dollars at a valuation of roughly $2.5 billion, two people familiar with the fundraising told Reuters.
The round, reported as an exclusive on October 9, has not yet closed and its terms could still change, the sources said.
An unusual bet on chip design
Nuvacore plans to build a new data-centre central processing unit, pursuing an unconventional strategy of developing the core functionality of the chip before committing to either the x86 or Arm instruction set.
The startup was founded by Gerard Williams, the former Apple executive who sold his previous chip company Nuvia to Qualcomm for $1.4 billion in 2021, alongside John Bruno and Ram Srinivasan. Its seed round was led by Sequoia Capital earlier this year.
A record funding year for chips
The raise is the latest sign of investor appetite for AI hardware. According to Reuters and Crunchbase data cited in the report, investors poured roughly $10.7 billion into semiconductor startups in the first five months of 2026 — already outpacing the total for all of 2025.
Sources:
- Sequoia-backed chip startup Nuvacore raising funds at about a $2.5 billion valuation, sources say — Reuters
- Exclusive: Sequoia-backed chip startup Nuvacore raising funds at about a $2.5 billion valuation, sources say — Channel News Asia
The round, reported as an exclusive on October 9, has not yet closed and its terms could still change, the sources said.
An unusual bet on chip design
Nuvacore plans to build a new data-centre central processing unit, pursuing an unconventional strategy of developing the core functionality of the chip before committing to either the x86 or Arm instruction set.
The startup was founded by Gerard Williams, the former Apple executive who sold his previous chip company Nuvia to Qualcomm for $1.4 billion in 2021, alongside John Bruno and Ram Srinivasan. Its seed round was led by Sequoia Capital earlier this year.
A record funding year for chips
The raise is the latest sign of investor appetite for AI hardware. According to Reuters and Crunchbase data cited in the report, investors poured roughly $10.7 billion into semiconductor startups in the first five months of 2026 — already outpacing the total for all of 2025.
Sources:
- Sequoia-backed chip startup Nuvacore raising funds at about a $2.5 billion valuation, sources say — Reuters
- Exclusive: Sequoia-backed chip startup Nuvacore raising funds at about a $2.5 billion valuation, sources say — Channel News Asia