Nuvacore Seeks Raise at About $2.5B Valuation, Six Months After Founding

What happened

Reuters reported exclusively on October 9 that Sequoia-backed Nuvacore is raising hundreds of millions of dollars at a roughly $2.5 billion valuation to develop a new central processor for data centers. The valuation has not been previously reported, and the round has not closed, so both the valuation and the raise size could change, according to two people familiar with the fundraising.

Last month Nuvacore described an unconventional design strategy: build the core functionality of the chip before committing to an architecture such as Intel and AMD's x86 or Arm, avoiding the limitations of specific architectures and optimizing for the most common computations in data centers and AI infrastructure. The San Jose-based startup was founded by renowned engineers Gerard Williams, John Bruno and Ram Srinivasan; Williams, a former Apple executive, sold his prior startup Nuvia to Qualcomm for $1.4 billion in 2021.

Key facts

1. Raise size:hundreds of millions of dollars at a roughly $2.5B valuation; The Information previously reported Nuvacore was raising $200M or more. The round has not closed.
2. What it builds:a new central processor for data centers. Reuters notes CPUs act as traffic controllers for Nvidia's AI chips and run AI agents.
3. Investors:a seed round led by Sequoia Capital announced earlier this year. Nuvacore declined to comment.
4. Market heat:Crunchbase data shows investors put about $10.7B into semiconductor startups in the first five months of 2026, already outpacing much of 2025's $12.2B global total; Intel says it cannot manufacture enough chips to meet demand, AMD reported swelling CPU sales, and both stocks are up more than 180% this year.