Ubitium raises $14M for one chip that senses, thinks and controls
The Düsseldorf startup's reconfigurable RISC-V processor aims to replace the DSP + NPU + CPU stack in robots and drones. Its first chip, UB108, works; the commercial UB410 is due in 2027.
In short: Ubitium raised $14 million in seed funding led by Ibex Investors, bringing total seed funding to $18 million.
The idea
Robots and drones typically split work across three chips: a DSP for sensing, an NPU for AI and a CPU for control. Ubitium builds one array of programmable elements that reallocates resources at runtime among the three, using standard RISC-V tools and unified memory.
Where it stands
- UB108 (256 processing elements, Samsung 8nm) has shown signal processing, AI inference and real-time control on the same array.
- UB410 (4,096 elements) is planned for tape-out, with evaluation units in 2027.
- First customers: radar and audio sensing systems; target: drones and autonomous systems.
- Investors: Ibex, OpenOcean, KBC Focus Fund, Runa Capital, Inflection, plus Quantum Systems co-CEO Florian Seibel.
Why it matters
Compute is a hidden bottleneck for physical AI: every extra chip costs power, weight and integration time. A unified processor is a big promise; evaluation units in 2027 will show whether it delivers.
Sources Sources verified
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