Chinese GPU startup MetaX raises $154 million in series A funding

Editing by Greg Gao

MetaX Tech, a Chinese GPU vendor for emerging applications like heterogeneous computing, recently closed its Series A financing, raising RMB1 billion($154 million). Leading this round of funding are two Chinese state-owned equity investment funds and a few other private equity funds.

The Shanghai-based MetaX (沐曦) focuses on high-performance general-purpose computing on graphics processing units(GPGPU). Founded in September 2020, the company's core team members come from tier-1 international semiconductor companies, many with over ten years of experience in the whole process, from high-performance GPU design to mass production and delivery, according to MetaX's website.

The two Chinese state-owned equity investment funds investing in MetaX Tech are China Structural Reform Fund and China Internet Investment Fund. Other investors are Matrix Partners China(经纬中国), CTC Capital(和利资本), Sequoia China(红杉中国) and Lightspeed China Partners(光速中国).

MetaX will use the new funds to support its R&D investment in high-performance GPUs and strengthen its leading position in heterogeneous computing applications in China, according to the company. Heterogeneous computing is receiving new attention in Chinese technology communities.

MetaX's reconfigurable GPU architecture effectively breaks away from the traditional GPU energy efficiency bottleneck based on its fully self-developed instruction set and graphics IP. The original hardware acceleration unit can significantly optimize the core computing power to energy consumption ratio. At the same time, the programmability of its GPU overcomes the limitations of the ASIC route application scenarios. It can meet the full range of needs for high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and data centers, the company claims.