Startup Vinci raises $250 million for software that simulates chip design with artificial intelligence

The software startup Vinci announced on Tuesday that it has raised $250 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, as Reuters reports, seeking to expand its line of software used to simulate elements of the design of chips and other electronic devices.

The Palo Alto, California-based company is entering a market that includes similar AI-based simulation products from well-known chip design software firms such as Cadence and Synopsys.

Vinci’s software is able to perform highly accurate physics simulations, very useful for designers of chips and devices — artificial intelligence chips generate large amounts of heat as systems become ever larger and more complex. The company started with thermal simulation for chips, but aims to expand to help simulate complete systems, and further into other types of physical simulation such as vibration testing and electromagnetism.

“If you ask anyone what they care about — they want physics simulations with ever higher accuracy,” Vinci’s chief executive, Hardik Kabaria, said in an interview with Reuters.

The 70-employee startup plans to use the proceeds from the funding round to pay for computing costs, hire new staff and continue expanding its range of simulation products. Kabaria said the company has built a foundational artificial intelligence model that has been proven in practice, and is now scaling operations from two pilot deployments to twenty.

The funding round was led by Advent, Temasek and Xora Innovation, with venture capital firms Eclipse, Khosla Ventures and Madrona also taking part, as Reuters reports.