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Swiss Startup Chipmind Launches AI Agents for Chip Design, Raises $2.5 Million

The Zurich team targets faster tape-outs by training design-aware agents on customers’ own environments.

Overview

  • Chipmind Agents are built to autonomously execute complex chip design and verification tasks while keeping human engineers in control.
  • The startup is running proof-of-concept projects with a small set of chip manufacturers, largely in Europe.
  • Chipmind estimates its tools can cut about 40% of engineers’ repetitive workload and potentially reduce a typical four-year development cycle by up to a year.
  • To safeguard sensitive IP, the agents are trained on-premises or in a virtual private cloud using each customer’s data, with demos pre-trained on five large open-source designs.
  • Full-scale commercial production is targeted for the second half of 2026, with the Founderful-led $2.5 million pre-seed funding used to expand engineering and product development as incumbents like Cadence and Synopsys develop competing AI offerings.