AI chip startup Mythic raises $40M Series funding round backed by Lockheed Martin for proprietary AI processor development.

Artificial intelligence chip developer Mythic has secured $40 million in Series B financing led by SoftBank Ventures and backed by Lockheed Martin's venture capital arm Data Collective, Lux Capital, DFJ, AME Cloud Ventures, and Andy Bechtolsheim. The company announced Wednesday that it will use the investment to further develop its compute-in-memory technology, which is designed to deliver the computing capability of a data center to smart machines and embedded devices through a tiny chip.

Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures, emphasized the strategic value of the partnership, stating that the company plans to leverage Mythic's AI-based chip technology to provide clients with a capability to collect actionable data from "distributed, power constrained systems." This capability addresses a critical need for organizations seeking to deploy advanced computing at the edge.

In a significant leadership addition, Mythic announced the appointment of Rene Haas, executive vice president and president of IP product group at Arm, to its board of directors. The company, which was founded by Mike Henry and Dave Fick in 2012, is moving rapidly toward commercialization. Mythic plans to unveil its initial product samples by the end of 2018 and begin shipments early next year.