Baya Systems raises $36m to advance AI and IoT chip tech

Baya Systems has raised over $36 million in a Series B funding round to advance its semiconductor technology designed for AI, IoT, and other computing applications.

The funding round was led by Maverick Silicon, with Synopsys partaking as a strategic investor, alongside reinvestment from Matrix Partners and Intel Capital. This capital aims to support Baya's expansion and the evolution of its system IP technology to address the demands of next-generation chip designs.

The semiconductor industry is at a crossroads as AI and evolving computing requirements push the need for scalable solutions beyond the scope of Moore's Law. This has led to a shift from the conventional systems-on-chip (SoCs) design towards "system-of-chips" models, incorporating multiple specialised chiplets. Baya is contributing to this change with its software-based design platform, facilitating the creation of chiplets that efficiently manage power and data processing.

Andrew Homan, Managing Director at Maverick Silicon, remarked, "Generative AI and multimodal compute have clearly shown that the real challenge has transitioned from compute engines to data movement and connectivity to truly deliver on the performance and efficiency needs of AI acceleration and scale compute infrastructure and communications." He praised Baya's WeaverPro and WeaveIP solutions for addressing these industry challenges.

Baya Systems adopts a comprehensive approach to R&D, focusing on building high-performance multi-die systems that overcome traditional semiconductor limitations. The WeaverPro software provides continuous enhancement of design metrics from initial specification to post-silicon tuning. Meanwhile, WeaveIP IPs support both custom and standard protocol communications, striving to maximise performance whilst reducing latency and power use.

Stan Reiss, General Partner at Matrix Partners, stated, "Baya Systems has executed ahead of schedule on building the team, the technology and the products that deliver on its vision to solve the high-performance system design challenge for the semiconductor industry. This has uncovered a much larger scope for the company, and in our view, this new infusion of capital is necessary to extend leadership and capitalize on that opportunity."

Since emerging from stealth mode, Baya Systems has launched its primary product offering and appears poised to expand within the market. The involvement of industry leaders, including Chairman of the Board Jim Keller, highlights the company's rapid development and strategic positioning.

Dr. Sailesh Kumar, Founder and CEO of Baya Systems, noted, "Designing increasingly complex combinations of CPUs, GPUs, neural network accelerators and other processors is a brute-force solution that the industry cannot rely on forever. It simply comes with too many risks: high re-engineering costs, difficulty scaling and potentially hitting the market with sub-par metrics. Baya's performance-focused, software-based approach, coupled with our unique transport and modular fabric IP, is designed from the ground up to produce complex multi-die solutions that are correct by construction with a simplified design process."

Baya's growing influence extends to partnerships, including an engagement with Tenstorrent for AI and RISC-V chiplet solutions, alongside other collaborations that have yet to be publicly disclosed.