February 26, 2026 /SemiMedia/ — Axelera AI said it has secured $250 million in fresh funding led by Innovation Industries, with new investors including BlackRock and SiteGround Capital joining the round, marking one of the larger recent financings for a European AI chip startup.

The Netherlands-based company plans to use the proceeds to ramp production of its Europa inference processor, which is expected to launch before June, and to further improve its software stack to simplify customer deployment in industrial AI applications.

Headquartered in Eindhoven, Axelera AI focuses on energy-efficient chips designed to run AI models at the edge rather than train large models in data centers. Since its founding in 2021, the company has raised more than $450 million in total funding.

Existing backers — including Bitfury, Verve Ventures, Samsung Electronics’ Catalyst Fund, the European Innovation Council Fund and government-backed funds from Belgium and the Netherlands — also participated in the latest round.

Separately, Axelera AI received about $66 million in EU support in March 2025 to develop its next-generation Titania processor for use in supercomputing facilities, often referred to as AI factories. The chip is expected to arrive in 2027.