El Dorado Hills-based Blaize Inc. raised $106 million to fund operations through when the AI chipmaker expects to go public later this year.
The company announced it raised the money from existing investors and new investors including venture capital firm Rizvi Traverse Management of West Palm Beach, Florida, Switzerland-based Ava Investors and BurTech LP LLC.
“This investment lends further credence to our thesis that edge AI is revolutionizing all industries,” said Blaize CEO Dinakar Munagala.
Blaize will use the money to scale up its business and expand its customer base, he said. This funding should take the company through going public, said Harminder Sehmi, Blaize chief financial officer.
One of the new investors, BurTech LP LLC, is the sponsor of special purpose acquisition company BurTech Acquisition Corp., which Blaize plans to merge with to go public in the fourth quarter.
Blaize announced in December that it would go public in a deal that valued Blaize at $894 million. The merger with the blank-check company BurTech (Nasdaq: BRKH) was to have closed in the second quarter, but it was delayed, Sehmi said. He said that the original timing was driven by the need for Blaize to raise capital. With the new round of venture capital, the need to close the merger quickly is less urgent. BurTech will seek shareholder approval for the merger after a review process by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Sehmi said.
BurTech's shareholders also approved an extension of its deadline to complete a merger. SPACs generally need to deploy their capital within two years after they go public, or return the money to shareholders. BurTech's initial public offering was in 2021.
Blaize chips are currently in production at a Samsung Electronics plant in Austin, Texas, Sehmi said. The chips are being manufactured in America for some customers who may be sensitive to where chips are made, including chips of Chinese origin, Sehmi said. Blaize has been delivering chips to customers since 2020.
Blaize makes microprocessor architecture and user-programmable software platforms for artificial intelligence in products for diverse markets including the automotive, industrial automation and health care industries.
The company’s programmable processor architecture features a low-code and no-code software studio platform so users can customize their applications to harness the power of the artificial intelligence at the periphery of the network and also in data centers. Some of Blaize’s customers are server manufacturers.
A core value proposition of Blaize is its AI Studio, a software platform that allows customers to program its chips using an intuitive group of tools that don’t require a software engineer to write code to achieve results.
The company’s programmable approach makes it ready for the unknown, Munagala said. “This is ideal in the fast-changing AI applications landscape, de-risking and reducing cost for our customers, scaling from the edge to the data center, with one uniform and complete hardware and software solution."
Blaize has its headquarters in El Dorado Hills, an office in San Jose to meet with other technology companies; an AI studio in North Carolina; an auto group in the U.K.; and its core engineering team in India. The company recently added an office in the United Arab Emirates, Sehmi said. Blaize employs about 200 people worldwide, Sehmi said. He declined to disclose the company's revenue.
Previous investors into Blaize that participated in this round of funding include Bess Ventures, Franklin Templeton, auto parts maker Denso Corp., Mercedes-Benz and Singaporean conglomerate Temasek Holdings Ltd.
Blaize has previously raised $224 million from venture and strategic investors.
This funding round is in the form of convertible notes, Sehmi said.
BurTech, headquartered in New York, is led by CEO Shahal Khan, who is also CEO of private wealth management firm Burkhan World Investments. Khan may be best known for being part of an investor group that purchased the Plaza Hotel in New York in 2018 for $600 million.
Blaize was founded in 2010 as ThinCI Inc.
