Axelera AI is a hardware and software company that optimizes for inference acceleration. They have built a revolutionary approach through Digital In-memory compute and Risc-V technology that brings high performance and energy efficiency to every segment of compute, without costly adoption. Through a technology platform that scales across use cases, Axelera AI supports multiple industries, from healthcare to industrial automation, from retail to security.

Today, Axelera AI ships the Metis AIPU, an inference accelerator optimized for edge computing, and the Voyager SDK, which simplifies adoption and optimizes the data pipeline. Their roadmap is expanding from edge to data center, but always centers on their D-IMC technology. Founded in 2021, Axelera AI is a mature and efficient organization, having taped out 3 chips in just 3 years, scaled their expertise to over 220 professionals, and raised ~$200 million in equity and grants. They are solving real-world problems and unlocking future possibilities.

Axelera AI provides an integrated hardware and software platform designed to deliver high-performance, energy-efficient AI inference at the edge. By combining purpose-built silicon with an optimized software stack, the company enables organizations to deploy AI applications more efficiently while reducing cost and power consumption. Its solutions are designed to simplify model deployment and accelerate real-time AI workloads across a range of edge use cases.

Key products include:

• Metis AIPU (AI Processing Unit): An edge inference accelerator that delivers high-performance AI processing with strong energy efficiency, enabling organizations to run AI workloads at scale with lower cost and power requirements.
• Voyager SDK: A software platform that simplifies AI deployment by automatically optimizing and quantizing models across CPUs and the Metis AIPU, allowing developers to build and scale AI applications more easily.

Organizations and technology partners across industries are leveraging Axelera AI’s platform to improve edge AI performance, efficiency, and scalability. Customers highlight the company’s ability to deliver high-performance inference with lower power consumption and cost, making it well-suited for real-time applications in areas such as industrial automation, IoT, and smart infrastructure.

Recent partnerships demonstrate the platform’s impact in real-world deployments. Axelera AI has collaborated with Aetina to enhance edge AI inference solutions and with Kudelski IoT to strengthen security for AI at the edge.

Additional collaborations with organizations such as Arduino and Thales further highlight Axelera AI’s growing ecosystem and its role in enabling next-generation AI applications.

Fabrizio Del Maffeo, CEO and Co-Founder

Fabrizio Del Maffeo is CEO and co-founder of Axelera AI, where he leads the company’s strategy, operations, and growth in delivering advanced AI solutions at the edge. He previously served as Head of AI at Bitfury Group and as Vice President and Managing Director of AAEON Technology Europe within the ASUS Group, bringing extensive leadership experience in AI, IoT, and enterprise technology.

Evangelos Eleftheriou, CTO and Co-Founder

Evangelos Eleftheriou is CTO and co-founder of Axelera AI, overseeing the development of the company’s hardware and software platform. An IEEE and IBM Fellow, he previously spent more than 35 years at IBM Research – Zurich, where he held multiple leadership roles and earned recognition for his contributions to AI, machine learning, and advanced computing technologies.

Alexis Crowell, Chief Marketing Officer

Alexis Crowell serves as Chief Marketing Officer at Axelera AI, leading global marketing and communications initiatives. She brings more than 20 years of experience across AI, edge computing, and product marketing, including prior leadership roles at Intel where she oversaw technology deployments across Asia Pacific and Japan.

Jon Ferguson, Vice President, Silicon Engineering

Jon Ferguson leads silicon engineering at Axelera AI, overseeing the development of the company’s chip architecture and design. He brings more than 25 years of experience in semiconductor design, with previous leadership roles at Graphcore, XMOS, Broadcom, and ARC International.

Manuel Botija, Vice President, Product Management

Manuel Botija leads product management for Axelera AI’s platform, driving product strategy and innovation. He has more than 17 years of experience in semiconductor startups across Europe and Silicon Valley and previously served as Head of Product at GrAI Matter Labs.

Ioannis Koltsidas, Vice President, AI Software

Ioannis Koltsidas leads AI software development at Axelera AI, overseeing the company’s software stack and cloud services. A founding engineer, he previously held roles at Google and IBM Research and has extensive experience in data management, analytics, and large-scale software systems.

Meghna Singh, Vice President, People

Meghna Singh serves as Vice President of People at Axelera AI, leading global HR strategy, talent development, and organizational growth. She brings more than 15 years of experience, including leadership roles at McKinsey & Company, Booking.com, and Infosys, with a focus on scaling high-performance teams.

Axelera AI has secured up to $61 million in grant funding to support the development of a scalable AI chiplet designed for high-performance computing applications. The funding will accelerate the company’s efforts to advance next-generation AI infrastructure, enabling more efficient and powerful processing for demanding workloads across data centers and edge environments. This investment reflects strong institutional support for Axelera AI’s technology and its role in shaping the future of AI hardware.

The grant will be used to further develop the company’s chiplet-based architecture, helping drive innovation in performance, scalability, and energy efficiency for AI systems. Read more about the announcement here.