#United States #Burlingame #AI Chips #Quadric #Inference Engine

Quadric's Rise in the AI Chip Market

Intro
In a significant move that highlights the company’s strong market presence, Quadric has announced successful funding of $30 million in a Series C round, bringing the total funds raised to $72 million. This funding round is led by ACCELERATE Fund, managed by BEENEXT Capital Management, showcasing Quadric's potential to revolutionize the on-device AI landscape.

Transformative Architecture
Quadric is not your average player in the AI landscape. With product revenues tripling year-on-year in 2025 as compared to 2024, Quadric is making headlines not just for the funds raised but for its impressive growth trajectory. This growth is primarily fueled by the adoption of its General Purpose NPU (GPNPU) processor IP across diverse sectors including automotive, edge LLM, and enterprise vision applications. Hero Choudhary, Managing Partner at BEENEXT, stated, “Quadric's innovative architecture and their strong market traction, particularly in Asian markets, indicate a very clear path for further growth.”

Addressing the Challenges in AI Inference
Crafting a superior AI inference chip is no easy feat, and sustaining its efficacy is even tougher. The existing edge AI chips often rely on outdated architectures with NPU accelerators added on as an afterthought. Associated software toolchains can be clunky, serving only a few fixed models, which further complicates the developer experience when accommodating new models.

Quadric has designed its Chimera™ processor IP to sidestep these challenges. Unlike conventional NPUs that are limited to specific model architectures, the Chimera processor is fully programmable and can support any AI model—today and into the future. This adaptability ensures that customer investments in silicon do not become obsolete as model requirements evolve, a common pitfall in AI technology.

Creating Customizable Solutions
The Chimera platform not only offers licensees a robust framework for deploying on-device LLM applications but does so with top-tier performance metrics. Capable of running models of up to 30 billion parameters, Quadric’s chips can move from initial engagement to production-ready status in under six months.

With its GPNPU cores scaling from 1 tera operations per second (TOPS) to an astonishing 864 TOPS, Quadric is also providing options that meet rigorous safety standards for automotive applications. This level of scalability translates into versatility, enabling deployments across various applications including office automation and autonomous driving.

Future-Focused Growth Strategy
Jeff Clavier, a founding partner at Uncork Capital, recognizes Quadric's unprecedented traction, attributing it to genuine customer adoption rather than mere buzz. He underscores that an ecosystem focused on on-device AI software solutions is forming around the Chimera architecture, making it a generational platform in the making.

As Quadric expands, it has announced two new license wins coinciding with this funding: a silicon provider for edge-server LLMs in Asia and Tier IV, a pioneering company in self-driving technology from Japan. These new collaborations will further cement Quadric's reputation as a trusted provider in the AI hardware space.

Customer-Focused Mission
Veerbhan Kheterpal, CEO and co-founder of Quadric, emphasizes their commitment to delivering premier AI inference chips that prioritize software integration, performance, and future-proofing against model obsolescence. This funding round is seen as growth capital, directed towards enhancing customer success through technological advancements.

Conclusion
Headquartered in Burlingame, California, and with teams across North America, Asia, and Europe, Quadric is set to redefine the AI hardware landscape. As they navigate 2026, the company is poised to push the frontiers of artificial intelligence technology further, setting the stage for unprecedented advancements in on-device solutions.