AI Chip Maker ThinkForce Wins RMB 450 Mln Series A from Yitu, Yunfeng
ChinaVenture, 12/14/17
Shanghai-based AI chip maker Think-Force Electronic Technology ("ThinkForce") recently announced completion of RMB 450 mln in Series A funding from Shanghai-based machine vision technology developer Yitu Network Technology, Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) Chairman Jack Ma's Yunfeng Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Beijing-based Hillhouse Capital Management.
Established in February this year, ThinkForce plans to release AI chips based on advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes and the company's own ManyCore microkernel architecture, which offers AI cloud virtualization functions at the chip level to improve computing and scheduling flexibility. The architecture's CPU-like virtualization approach offers cloud computing scheduling flexibility at significantly lower costs. ThinkForce also combines this technology with its own firmware and TFDL software development kit to offer performance upgrades for many neural network models, including, it claims, improvements of over 500% compared to mainstream NVidia cards in terms of power consumption and cost savings.
Keywords: ThinkForce M&A VC hardware funding semiconductor Series A Sequoia Capital Hillhouse Capital Yunfeng Capital Yitu Network chipmaker artificial intelligence
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