An AI chip startup led by CEO William Passo, Rain AI is working to develop more cost and energy-efficient hardware for AI. This latest investment forms part of Rain AI's $25 million Series A extension round.
With AI's demand for energy continuing to grow, Rain AI is developing in-memory compute proprietary technology and AI accelerator chips capable of unlocking a myriad of new use cases.
According to Passo, "The AI problem is an energy problem. Being able to run the most advanced models locally in any form factor is AI's holy grail, including running massive LLMs, such as GPT-4, on any device. Creating this future with abundant and scalable artificial intelligence is critical for the coming AI revolution. We've never seen more customer demand for our technology than we do now, and I'm excited for what's to come in 2024 and beyond."
Rain AI looks to eliminate the biggest drivers of energy usage. Unlike other AI hardware where 90% of energy is consumed by data flow, Rain AI's proprietary digital in-memory compute technology combines both memory and processing. And by co-designing their chips with some of the world's best AI models, it claims to be able to dramatically reduce the energy consumption of AI compute compared to other solutions.
Rain AI is now in talks with major hyperscalers and semiconductor companies to license its IP, with plans to launch its first chip ready for customers in 2025. The use-cases will span across multiple industries, including drones, VR goggles, smartphones, robotics, wearables, and more.
Commenting Arthur Lee, managing partner of Epic Venture Partners, said, "AI is defining the Fourth Industrial Revolution, yet we are only scratching the surface on use cases across enterprise, military, and consumer applications. There's a wide range of capabilities to explore. Rain AI's in-memory compute technology and upcoming AI accelerator chips will continue to unlock the myriad of use cases and allow them to be performed faster, more efficiently, and with more privacy protection at the Edge."
Rain AI was founded in 2017 and was able to secure a $5 million seed round led by Sam Altman, co-founder of OpenAI, and subsequently relocated to Silicon Valley to further its research and development efforts. To date, Rain AI has raised over $40m.
