Israeli chip startup Speedata has secured a $44 million Series B round, bringing its total funding to $114 million as it prepares to unveil a next-generation processor that may challenge Nvidia‘s (NASDAQ:NVDA) dominance in AI and big data computing, TechCrunch reports.

The round was led by existing investors, including Walden Catalyst Ventures, 83North, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Pitango First, and Viola Ventures, according to TechCrunch. Strategic backers include Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who also serves as managing partner at Walden Catalyst, and Eyal Waldman, co-founder of Mellanox Technologies.

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Custom-Built APU Aims To Replace Racks Of Servers With One Chip

At the heart of Speedata's innovation is the analytics processing unit, a dedicated chip designed to accelerate data analytics from the silicon level up, TechCrunch reports. Unlike graphics processing units, which were originally designed for graphics and later adapted for data workloads, Speedata's analytics processing unit was engineered solely for analytics performance.

“Our APU is purpose-built for data processing and a single APU can replace racks of servers, delivering dramatically better performance,” Speedata CEO Adi Gelvan told TechCrunch. “We aim at becoming the standard processor for data processing — just as GPUs became the default for AI training, we want APUs to be the default for data analytics across every database and analytics platform,” he added.

In one pharmaceutical test case, Speedata's APU completed a complex data workload in just 19 minutes, compared to 90 hours using conventional hardware. That represents a 280x speed improvement, highlighting the chip’s potential to redefine industry benchmarks, TechCrunch says.

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The APU currently supports Apache Spark, with a product roadmap that includes integration across major analytics platforms. According to TechCrunch, Speedata aims to position its APU as the industry standard for processing analytics data, similar to how Nvidia’s GPUs became essential in AI training.

Veteran-Backed Founders Bring Deep Silicon Expertise To Market

Speedata was founded in 2019 by six engineers, including early researchers of multi-threaded coarse-grained reconfigurable architecture, a breakthrough in programmable chip technology, TechCrunch reports. The founding team collaborated with application-specific integrated circuit specialists to design the chip from the ground up to solve analytics bottlenecks.

Since its last funding round, Speedata has finalized the design and manufacturing of its first APU, moving from prototype simulations to production hardware in late 2024. The company is growing a pipeline of several large enterprise customers, although names have not been disclosed, TechCrunch says.

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First Public APU Reveal Scheduled For Databricks Data & AI Summit

Speedata plans to showcase its APU publicly for the first time at the Databricks’ Data & AI Summit currently underway, according to TechCrunch.

The startup is now expanding its go-to-market operations and growing its pipeline of enterprise clients eager to transition to faster and more efficient data processing, TechCrunch says. With $114 million in total funding, Speedata enters the race with both the hardware and investor backing to compete on a global scale.

As data workloads continue to grow, Speedata's APU could reshape how businesses process information, potentially giving Nvidia its first serious competitor in data-specific chip architecture.

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