Apple, Google Chip Developers Launch Own Tech Startup, Raise $53M In Funding

Nuvia, a company less than a year old and composed of three former Apple engineers, has raised $53 million in a Series A funding round.

The Santa Clara-based company announced the capital raising via press release on Friday. The investors who joined the round included Capricorn Investment Group, Dell Technologies Capital, Mayfield, and WRVI Capital, with additional participation from Nepenthe LLC.

John Bruno, Manu Gulati and Gerard Williams III, all former Apple employees, with Gulati and Bruno having had stints in Google, founded NUVIA in early 2019 and are challenging Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

The trio is on a mission to "reimagine silicon design for high-performance computing environments." As Williams told Reuters, they want to produce a chip that's faster, more efficient, and secure than existing data center processors. And Nuvia's quick access to funds from venture capitalists is attributable to the founders' reputation in Silicon Valley.

“We want to bring all these aspects that we have developed over time through our careers to this new market and really exploit them in this market, because it’s an area ripe for innovation and advancement,” Williams told Reuters in an interview.

To date, the three have designed 20 chips in their careers, with over 100 patents granted to them.

"The world is creating more data than it can process as we become increasingly dependent on high-speed information access, always-on rich media experiences and ubiquitous connectivity," Williams revealed.

"A step-function increase in compute performance and power efficiency is needed to feed these growing user needs. The timing couldn't be better to create a new model for high-performance silicon design with the support of a world-class group of investors," he explained.

One of their investors, Capricorn Investment Group, has an investing mantra for making bets on companies that drive sustainable positive change. Dipender Saluja, the managing partner of Capricorn's Technology Impact Fund, said, "The compute-intensive demands of next-generation platforms are stretching the conventional limitations of the semiconductor industry."

"What's needed is a new approach to silicon design that provides non-linear increases in performance and energy efficiency. We're excited to partner with NUVIA on this journey as they realize this promise for the next era of semiconductors and computing," Saluja continued.