Chip startup Efficient Computer raises $100 million at $650 million valuation

SAN FRANCISCO: Efficient Computer, a chip startup spun out of Carnegie Mellon University, on Tuesday said it has raised $100 million in additional funding, bringing its valuation to $650 million.

Efficient is developing chips with what is known as data flow architectures that can be both faster and 10 to 100 times more energy-efficient than the architectures used by Intel Corp or Nvidia Corp.

Data-flow chips have bounced around academic literature for decades without commercial traction, largely because they are difficult for software developers to program for the wide variety of tasks that can be handled by chips from Intel or Nvidia.