Mythic snags $40 million to advance AI chips

Mythic introduced at the moment that it has closed a $40 million spherical of funding led by SoftBank Ventures to assist deliver a high-speed, low-power AI chip to market.

The firm will use this huge infusion of money to assist launch its specialised silicon subsequent yr, roughly seven years after the corporate was first incubated on the Michigan Integrated Circuits Lab. Mythic’s know-how performs machine studying inference calculations utilizing analog electrical indicators and flash reminiscence, which the corporate says permits for larger efficiency and a lower-power draw than extra standard strategies, like utilizing GPUs.

Mythic is concentrating on one of many largest bottlenecks in machine studying computation: shifting knowledge to and from reminiscence for processing. Because all the neural community inference computation takes place on the identical silicon that shops its weights, it’s purported to work sooner.

Above: Mythic’s proof of idea chip, heart.

Image Credit: Mythic

The startup is a part of a bumper crop of latest corporations that hope to capitalize on the large curiosity in AI by providing new customized silicon that guarantees to outperform general-purpose architectures. However, Mythic is competing in opposition to not solely fellow newcomers but in addition legacy chipmakers racing so as to add devoted AI chips to their product portfolio.

Mythic cofounder and CEO Mike Henry instructed VentureBeat in an interview that he thinks the corporate’s know-how and its give attention to edge computing purposes will give it a leg up over the competitors.

The startup’s first merchandise will probably be boards that enable builders to fit Mythic’s chips into they’re already working with. In the long run, Henry desires to see his firm’s chips designed into devices, fairly than added in after the actual fact. That will make the know-how extra sticky, since it is going to be locked right into a era of .

Lockheed Martin Ventures, the protection contractor’s enterprise capital arm, made a strategic funding in Mythic as a part of the spherical. Henry mentioned that Lockheed Martin plans to be a buyer when the silicon hits the market.

This spherical included participation from Mythic’s present traders Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Lux Capital, Data Collective, and AME Cloud Ventures. Sun Microsystems cofounder Andy Bechtolsheim (who was an early investor in Google) additionally joined the spherical.

SoftBank Ventures named Arm govt vice chairman Rene Haas to Mythic’s board as a part of the deal. He’s a pure match, since he labored at Nvidia previous to becoming a member of Arm. (It’s price noting that Haas’ appointment doesn’t connote any form of partnership between Arm and Mythic, nevertheless.)

Mythic plans to obtain the primary samples of its silicon by the top of this yr, with full manufacturing ramping up in 2019. The firm can be going to continue to grow its headcount. This time final yr, the agency consisted of 10 folks in Austin, Texas, and it has since grown to 45 staff, with a further workplace in Redwood City, California. Henry mentioned he expects to achieve 85 staff by the top of this yr.

The firm nonetheless has a number of key proof factors forward of it. Right now, it’s straightforward to make claims about how its know-how will carry out at launch, however the proof will come when prospects get their palms on the ultimate product subsequent yr and may check these claims for themselves.