Another deep-tech chip startup has become a unicorn: Frore is valued at $1.64 billion

Eight-year-old semiconductor startup Frore Systems has raised a $143 million Series D round, led by MVP Ventures, at a valuation of $1.64 billion, the company announced Monday.

Frore has now raised a total of $340 million, the company said. Frore doesn’t make the chips himself; Where liquid cooling systems are manufactured for them. Founded by two former Qualcomm engineers, the company’s technology was initially created to bring air-cooling technology to phones and other small, fanless electronic devices.

The company’s focus on chips was inspired by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who received a demo of the technology about two years ago, Bloomberg reported. Huang suggested that they develop liquid cooling options, which is the new must-have option for AI chips and systems. They’ve done just that, and released products that work with various Nvidia chipsets and boards. The company has also developed products for Qualcomm and AMD.

AI-driven semiconductors have been a hot area of ​​investment. Other startups in this space include Nvidia competitor Positron, which reached a valuation of $1 billion in February; Oudiya Intelligence, which received a $4 billion valuation straight out of the gate. Eridu also just launched a $200 million funding round (though it declined to reveal its valuation), to build new AI-powered networking chips.

Investors participating in Frore’s latest round include Fidelity, Mayfield, Addition, Qualcomm Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and others.