Olix, Avrupa'nın en büyük çip turunu 3,3 milyar $ değerleme ile yükseltti

Olix raises Europe's largest chip round at $3.3B valuation

Mon, August 3, 2026 at 2:21 PM GMT+3 2 min read

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AI chip startup Olix has more than tripled its valuation in less than six months with a $312 million Series B, closing Europe's largest semiconductor VC round.

The London-based startup raised the funding at a $3.3 billion valuation, up from around $1 billion it had achieved in February with its $220 million Series A.

Previous investors, including Hummingbird Ventures, Crane and Plural, increased their commitments. New backers Fundomo, Arm and Hudson River Trading have joined the cap table, alongside angel investors such as Netflix cofounder Reed Hastings.

Founded just two years ago by 25-year-old entrepreneur James Dacombe, Olix is building the infrastructure for frontier AI inference from chips and lasers to the network that connects them. Its goal is to create more efficient, cheaper and faster chips than are currently available by developing specialized chips for each stage of the token production process.

Olix is working on its first chip, the DX-1, which is designed to generate AI text output. The fresh funding will be used to deliver the chip to customers by H2 2027, and to build out the wider platform behind it.

Semiconductor companies have had a turbulent month on the public markets. Concerns around a potential slowdown in AI-related spending prompted a sell-off in stocks. The PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index, which tracks the 30 largest US-listed companies in the sector, is down more than 20% over the month.

The change in investor appetite for semiconductor companies hasn't crossed over to the private markets, where funding for startups in the space is pacing for its highest year on record.

According to PitchBook data, more than $16 billion has been invested in semiconductor companies, and at the current pace, 2026's annual total is projected to be 30% above last year's record. California-based Cerebras Systems' $1 billion Series H is the largest deal to have closed so far this year, giving the company a valuation of around $23 billion.

In Europe, the need to develop sovereign chip technology has prompted even faster growth for the sector. Funding has already reached $2.1 billion, almost double last year's total, although the continent's sector remains a fraction of the size of America's.

Outside Olix's Series B, several mega-rounds have closed this year, including Dutch startup Axelera AI's $250 million-plus deal and London-based Fractile's $220 million Series B.

This article originally appeared on PitchBook News