On January 26, the startup Ricursive Intelligence, which focuses on using AI systems to automatically design and improve AI chips, announced a $300 million funding round, with its valuation surging to $4 billion just two months after its establishment. The round was led by Lightspeed, with NVentures (NVIDIA's venture capital division), DST Global, and Radical AI among others participating as co-investors.

Core Technology: Making AI Chips with AI

Ricursive was founded by former Google researchers Anna Goldie and Azalia Mirhoseini. The two founders previously developed the AlphaChip reinforcement learning approach, which has been applied in the layout design of four generations of Google's TPUs.

  • Self-Improving System: Ricursive is building a system that can automatically create silicon substrates and accelerate chip iteration.

  • Ultimate Vision: The founders believe that by continuously repeating this AI-driven chip design feedback loop, it may eventually lead to the realization of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).

Increasing Competition: Giants and Capital Gather