SiMa.ai Raises $150M Series C at $1.45B Valuation to Scale Physical AI

SiMa.ai, a physical AI company developing purpose-built computing and software for robotics, drones, automotive systems and other edge applications, has raised $150 million in a Series C financing round.

The financing brings SiMa.ai's total capital raised to $500 million and values the company at $1.45 billion. The round was co-led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and Amplify, with participation from Alter Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital and StepStone Group. AllianceBernstein, Baron Capital and J.P. Morgan also joined the financing as new investors.

SiMa.ai said the new capital will support the expansion of its Physical AI software platform while funding the development of its next-generation hardware.

Building an infrastructure layer for Physical AI

Founded in 2018 by Krishna Rangasayee, SiMa.ai focuses on computing infrastructure for Physical AI applications.

The company's technology is designed for machines that need to process AI workloads in real-world environments rather than in conventional cloud data centers. Its target applications include robotics, autonomous systems, drones, industrial automation, automotive platforms, aerospace and defence, smart vision and healthcare.

SiMa.ai describes its approach as a software-centric Physical AI platform that combines purpose-built silicon with software.

The company is positioning this architecture as an alternative to relying primarily on general-purpose GPUs for edge AI workloads.

According to SiMa.ai, Physical AI applications have traditionally relied on NVIDIA GPUs, which can be expensive and power intensive. The company aims to address those constraints through specialized hardware and a full-stack software environment designed specifically for Physical AI deployments.

The latest financing will therefore be used across both sides of the platform: software development and silicon.

$150M to scale Palette Neat

A major focus of the new funding is Palette Neat, which SiMa.ai describes as an agentic software environment for Physical AI.

The company plans to scale the platform as it works to make the development and deployment of Physical AI applications easier for customers.

Physical AI systems often combine multiple components, including sensors, machine learning models, embedded computing and real-world control systems. Software environments that can coordinate these components are becoming an increasingly important part of the technology stack.

SiMa.ai's strategy is to provide that software layer alongside its own purpose-built compute infrastructure.

The company says this full-stack approach is intended to simplify deployments across different Physical AI use cases.

Next-generation silicon targeting 1,000 TOPS

Alongside Palette Neat, SiMa.ai is developing a new generation of Physical AI hardware.

The company plans to deliver up to 1,000 TOPS of compute through purpose-built Physical AI silicon. TOPS, or trillions of operations per second, is a commonly used measure for AI processing performance.

The next-generation hardware is slated for the first half of 2028.

SiMa.ai said the platform will incorporate machine learning IP, chiplets and system-on-chips.

The company intends to target applications requiring substantial AI processing at the edge, including medium- to high-end drones, humanoid robots, automotive advanced driver assistance systems and AI-powered vehicle cockpits.

These environments can place strict requirements on compute performance, power consumption and latency because AI processing needs to happen close to the physical system.

For drones and robots, for example, sending every computational task to a remote cloud environment can introduce latency and connectivity constraints. Similar requirements apply to automotive systems, where AI workloads can need to operate within the vehicle.

SiMa.ai's purpose-built approach is designed around these edge computing requirements.

More than 150 customers

SiMa.ai said it currently serves more than 150 customers across automotive, drones and robotics.

Its customer list includes ARK Electronics, AVerMedia, Bosch, Emerson, Intrinsic, Kontron, L&T Technology Services, Mistral, STIGA, Synopsys and Virya Autonomous Tech, among others.

The breadth of the customer base reflects the company's focus on multiple Physical AI markets rather than a single application.

Robotics is one of the most visible areas for Physical AI, but the underlying computing requirements extend across industrial automation, automotive systems, drones and other machines that interact with the physical world.

SiMa.ai's platform is intended to provide a common computing and software foundation across these applications.

Physical AI market is expanding

The financing comes as the broader Physical AI sector develops around advances in robotics, autonomous systems and edge computing.

SiMa.ai cited market research projecting that the global Physical AI devices market, covering areas such as robotics, automotive and drones, will reach 145 million cumulative shipments by 2035.

The company believes this growth will increase demand for specialized computing infrastructure capable of running increasingly sophisticated AI models directly on physical machines.

Unlike traditional AI applications that can depend heavily on centralized cloud computing, Physical AI requires AI systems to operate within devices that have limitations around power, space, connectivity and thermal management.

That creates a different set of hardware and software requirements.

Purpose-built silicon can potentially address these requirements by tailoring the architecture to the workloads that Physical AI systems actually need to execute.

Competition around AI compute moves to the edge

The AI semiconductor market has historically been dominated by general-purpose accelerators and GPUs, particularly for large-scale model training and inference.

Physical AI creates another opportunity for specialized computing architectures.

Robots, drones and vehicles can require high-performance inference while operating within constrained environments. Developers therefore need to balance compute performance with power consumption, physical size and system cost.

SiMa.ai is attempting to address this through a combination of silicon and software rather than treating the processor as an isolated component.

Its strategy also puts the company in a broader ecosystem involving semiconductor companies, robotics developers, automotive technology providers and AI software companies.

The participation of investors including Fidelity Management & Research Company, Amplify, Dell Technologies Capital and StepStone Group gives SiMa.ai additional capital as it works toward its next hardware generation.

A bigger bet on the Physical AI stack

The $150 million Series C marks a significant expansion of SiMa.ai's capital base, bringing total funding to $500 million and its valuation to $1.45 billion.

The company now has two major development priorities: scaling Palette Neat as an agentic software environment for Physical AI and building next-generation silicon capable of delivering up to 1,000 TOPS.

Its planned 2028 hardware launch will target several of the most compute-intensive edge applications, from humanoid robotics and drones to automotive ADAS and AI-powered cockpits.

With more than 150 customers already using its platform and a growing Physical AI market, SiMa.ai is building toward a future where AI computation increasingly happens inside the machines interacting with the physical world.

The next stage will depend on how successfully the company can translate its silicon and software strategy into deployments across these diverse markets.