By Hamza Faisal
Software startup Vinci said on Tuesday it has raised $250 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, a funding round the Palo Alto, California-based company will use to expand its suite of software that simulates elements of chip and other hardware design.
Vinci is entering a market that includes similar AI-based simulation products from established chip design software firms such as Cadence and Synopsys. Its software performs high-fidelity physics simulation that is useful for chip and hardware designers, as AI chips generate enormous amounts of heat and the systems keep getting larger and more complex.

From heat simulations to whole systems

The company began by focusing on thermal simulation for chips but is looking to expand to help simulate whole systems. "If you ask anybody, what they are interested in — they want higher and higher fidelity physics simulation," Vinci chief executive Hardik Kabaria said in an interview.
The 70-person startup plans to use the proceeds from the funding round to pay for its computing costs, hire more staff and continue expanding its range of simulation products. Eventually Vinci plans to expand to other types of physics simulation like vibration testing and electromagnetics.

A foundation model for engineering

Kabaria said the company's approach is built on a foundation AI model that has already been proven in the field. "It is a foundation model that is proven to work in the field, so now it's about scaling up the operations and that means not just two pilot deployments but 20," he said, referring to the model Vinci built to assist with the simulations.
Advent, Temasek and Xora Innovation led the funding round. Venture firms Eclipse, Khosla Ventures and Madrona also participated, the company said.

A track record of speed

The new round follows Vinci's $36 million Series A in December 2025, which was led by Temasek-backed Xora Innovation and brought the company's total raised at the time to $46 million. In that earlier announcement, Vinci said its software combines proven physics methods with an AI model to deliver simulations up to 1,000 times faster than conventional tools.
The company said more than 10 semiconductor companies had independently benchmarked Vinci's results against their traditional finite element analysis solvers and experimental data, with the simulations matching or exceeding the accuracy of established methods. The fresh capital arrives as AI infrastructure spending continues to strain the capacity of chip designers, making faster and more accurate simulation tools a priority across the industry.
By Hamza Faisal