Eight-year-old semiconductor startup Frore Systems has raised a $143 million Series D, led by MVP Ventures, at $1.64 billion valuation, the company announced on Monday.
Frore has now raised $340 million total, the company said. Frore doesn’t make the chips themselves; it makes liquid-cooling systems for them. Founded by two former Qualcomm engineers, the company’s tech was initially created to offer air-cooling tech for phones and other small fanless electronics.
The company’s focus on chips was inspired by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who received a demo of the technology about two years ago, Bloomberg reported. Huang suggested they develop liquid-cooling options, the new must-have for AI chips and systems. So they did, releasing products that work with various Nvidia chips and boards. The company has also developed products for Qualcomm and AMD.
AI semiconductors have been a hot area for investment. Other new unicorns in the field include Nvidia competitor Positron, which hit a $1 billion valuation in February, and Recursive Intelligence, which landed a $4 billion valuation right out of the gate. Eridu just launched, too, with a $200 million Series A round (though it declined to disclose its valuation), to build new AI networking chips.
Participating investors in Frore’s latest round include Fidelity, Mayfield, Addition, Qualcomm Ventures, and Alumni Ventures, among others.
