Olix reaches $3.3bn valuation after $312m AI chip round

Olix’s $3.3bn valuation follows a reported $312m financing led by New York investment firm Fundomo, with Arm, Hudson River Trading and Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings among the participants. The London-based AI chip startup, founded by James Dacombe, has yet to deliver a product, so the round funds an engineering and manufacturing path whose first customer shipments are expected in 2027.

The valuation is post-money and compares with just over $1bn in February, when Olix raised $220m, according to the Financial Times and Sifted. The two disclosed rounds add to $532m. That is a sharp valuation increase in six months, though the evidence does not establish an exact multiple because the February valuation was reported only as “just over” $1bn.

Olix is pursuing chips for AI inference and is seeking to compete with Nvidia, which dominates chip supply. Its contention that it can offer faster and cheaper hardware than Nvidia is a company ambition rather than a demonstrated result. The Financial Times reported that Dacombe intends to sell the chips in server racks that also include software and networking equipment.

When will Olix ship its first AI chips?

Olix plans to tape out its chips later in 2026, with initial products expected in customers’ hands in 2027, Sifted and the Financial Times reported. Tape-out is the final stage of chip design and testing before manufacturing. The company therefore remains pre-product, and its claimed performance and commercial adoption have not yet been demonstrated through customer deliveries.

Olix says its designs avoid several components currently in short supply, including leading-edge silicon, high-bandwidth memory and advanced packaging. That design choice could matter for supply planning if the company reaches production, but the reports provide no independent validation of the technology’s performance or manufacturability at scale.

The financing coincides with a senior hire. Olix appointed Matt Briers, previously chief financial officer at Wise, as CFO. The Financial Times reported that Olix has more than 140 employees across London, Bristol, Toronto and Austin. The supplied reports do not provide revenue, customer numbers, ownership terms or production volumes.

Investor interest in European AI hardware has also extended to other companies: Sifted reported that Dutch chip startup Axelera raised more than $250m in February, while UK inference-chip company Fractile raised $220m in May. Olix’s fundraise stands out for its valuation and timing, but the next milestones are tape-out, manufacturing and whether its systems reach customers on the stated schedule.

This story draws on original reporting from Sifted.