Efficient Computer raises $60M to build less power-hungry AI chips

Efficient Computer, a Pittsburgh computer chip manufacturer, announced today it raised a $60 million Series A. 

The company makes a chip called the Electron E1, which it says is about 100 times more energy efficient than comparable products while still being flexible enough to run any kind of software. The startup plans to use the funds to hire more engineers, speed up development and target new sectors for its chips, including industrial automation, national defense, space tech and consumer wearables. 

“The specialized hardware approach works to support a narrow slice of today’s workloads, but it breaks down as software, models and applications continue to change,” Brandon Lucia, the startup’s CEO and cofounder, said in a prepared statement. “Efficient was built around a different idea: that the most durable path forward is a truly general-purpose architecture that can evolve with software over time, while providing market-leading energy efficiency for a range of critical intelligence use cases.”

Traditional chips often use more power moving data around internally than actually performing computations. The Electron E1 is designed to minimize internal data movement, allowing it to deliver more performance per watt, according to the startup. 

Efficient Computer and its investors are betting that as AI gets built into more physical devices, like robots, sensors or satellites that can’t be plugged into a wall, the demand for chips that can run without draining a battery will grow. 

Triatomic Capital led the round, with participation from Eclipse, Union Square Ventures, Overlap Holdings, Box Group, RTX Ventures, Toyota Ventures and Overmatch Ventures, among others. 

“As we continue to see AI embedded across the physical world, Efficient’s processors enable intelligence in applications that were previously inaccessible,” Peter Zhou, general partner at Triatomic Capital, said in the announcement. “We see Efficient’s architecture as the missing link in AI’s last-mile distribution problem.”

The raise brings Efficient Computer’s total funding to $76 million. The company did not disclose its current valuation.

From CMU spinout to $76M raised

Efficient Computer spun out from Carnegie Mellon University in 2022. It now has nearly 50 employees and an estimated valuation of $34 million as of 2023, according to PitchBook. 

The company is part of a growing group of startups from the university that focus on physical AI, or machines that incorporate artificial intelligence to perform real-world tasks.  

This scene is attracting major investment in Pittsburgh. Recent large local rounds include Gather AI’s $40 million raise and Skild AI’s $1.4 billion. 

The company’s first real-world deployment is with BrightAI, a company that uses the Electron E1 to remotely monitor infrastructure like water pipelines, gas compressors and power systems. Those pieces of equipment are often in hard-to-reach places where swapping out a dead battery isn’t easy.

“Efficient’s Electron E1 processor fundamentally changes what’s possible at the edge,” said Alex Hawkinson, founder and CEO of BrightAI, in the announcement. “Integrating E1 into BrightAI’s Stateful platform allows us to unlock a new sphere of physical AI, bringing real-time observability to the world’s most critical infrastructure.”