SiFive Raises $400M to Challenge Intel and ARM in Data Center Market

Quick Facts

• SiFive raised $400M in Series G funding led by Atreides Management, valuing the company at $3.65 billion
• The funding will accelerate development of RISC-V CPU and AI IP solutions targeting data centers
• RISC-V architecture now captures 25% of the global processor market, challenging Intel and ARM dominance

RISC-V chip design startup SiFive closed a $400 million Series G funding round to accelerate its push into high-performance data center solutions. The oversubscribed round, led by Atreides Management, values the company at $3.65 billion.

The investor lineup includes Apollo Global Management, NVIDIA, Point72 Turion, and T. Rowe Price Investment Management. Repeat investors Prosperity7 Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures also participated.

SiFive will use the funding for three key areas: advanced R&D for high-performance RISC-V CPU and accelerator IP, data center software development, and customer enablement programs. The company is building on existing ports of CUDA, RedHat and Ubuntu while collaborating with industry leaders like NVIDIA on NVLink Fusion integration.

“Hyperscale customers have made it very clear that it is time to accelerate the availability of open standard alternatives for the data center,” said CEO Patrick Little. “Their consistent ask is for customizable CPU solutions in IP form, that will enable them to meaningfully differentiate their data center compute solutions.”

The funding comes as RISC-V gains significant market traction. The open-source architecture now captures approximately 25% of the global processor market, positioning itself as a competitor to ARM Holdings and the x86 duopoly of Intel and AMD.

SiFive achieved record growth in 2025 and reports its IP is featured in more than 500 designs, with over 10 billion cores shipped to date. The company claims over 400 design wins across hyperscaler, electric vehicle, and IoT markets.

Market research firm Semico Research predicts the RISC-V market will consume over 62 billion cores by 2025, with CPU royalties reaching $230 million by 2028. Industry analysts see a potential $100 billion-plus market opportunity for next-generation AI and data center infrastructure.

“The rapid scale and accelerating pace of AI workloads are exposing the limitations of legacy CPU architectures that weren’t originally built with modern AI performance-per-watt requirements in mind,” said Dave Altavilla, Principal Analyst at HotTech Vision and Analysis.

Founded in 2015 by UC Berkeley researchers, SiFive became the first company to produce a chip implementing the RISC-V instruction set architecture. The company previously raised $175 million in Series F funding in March 2022, bringing total investment to over $350 million before this latest round.

Little said the company expects this to be its final private raise before a potential public offering, though no timeline has been set. The funding positions SiFive to capitalize on growing demand for AI-optimized computing as hyperscalers seek alternatives to traditional proprietary architectures.

Read more: RISC-V chip design startup SiFive nabs $400M investment