Dutch AI inference-chip startup Euclyd raised $231M in funding, with Samsung as a lead backer, positioning itself as a direct Nvidia alternative for cost-optimized inference.

Samsung has backed Dutch semiconductor startup Euclyd in a Series A funding round of more than €200 million (valued at approximately $231 million by CNBC), providing the two-year-old company with capital to develop AI chips and computing systems designed as alternatives to the graphics processors that currently dominate AI infrastructure.

The round was co-led by Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners, the EQT-managed Scaleup Europe Fund and Innovation Industries. Denmark's Export and Investment Fund, imec.xpand, Brabant Development Agency and Quadri also participated.

Founded in 2024 and based in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Euclyd is developing infrastructure for running foundation AI models, including custom compute silicon, memory architecture and data-center systems. The company's technology focuses on inference—the process through which a trained AI model responds to requests and generates outputs. Euclyd claims its architecture can reduce the power, memory and infrastructure needed to run increasingly large AI models, though these claims have yet to be demonstrated at the scale of major commercial deployments.

CEO Bernardo Kastrup said Euclyd expects to begin rolling out physical chip systems in 2028 and aims to serve thousands of enterprise customers by 2030. The company plans to generate revenue both by selling hardware and rack systems to customers running AI models on their own infrastructure and by licensing intellectual property to companies developing their own chips.

Samsung's involvement offers Euclyd a strategic investor with extensive semiconductor manufacturing and memory expertise. Beyond the financial investment, Kastrup emphasized Samsung's value lies in its engineering expertise, supply-chain network and position as one of the world's largest memory manufacturers.

Euclyd will use the new funding to expand its engineering workforce, accelerate development of its silicon and systems, and build partnerships targeting enterprise, government and hyperscale AI customers.

The company is developing a programmable AI processor called Craftwerk alongside the Craftwerk Station CWS, a larger computing system built around its processor and memory architecture. This combination is intended to address the power consumption and memory bottlenecks associated with running large AI models.

Former ASML President and CEO Peter Wennink is joining Euclyd as non-executive chairman, bringing decades of experience in Europe's semiconductor industry. Wennink led ASML from 2013 until his retirement in 2024.

Euclyd enters a market still heavily dominated by Nvidia GPUs but increasingly crowded with companies developing processors specifically for AI workloads. This shift has accelerated as the cost and electricity requirements of building and operating AI infrastructure have risen. Some of the world's biggest technology companies are already designing their own chips rather than relying exclusively on general-purpose AI accelerators. Google, for example, has said Nvidia GPUs remain a core part of its AI accelerator portfolio alongside its own TPUs, while other companies are building a broader mix of hardware designed for different AI workloads.

Euclyd is taking a similar specialized approach but must still prove its architecture in commercial deployments at scale. Kastrup acknowledged that the company's systems have yet to be demonstrated in production environments.

The startup's focus on inference positions it in a segment of the AI chip market drawing increasing attention as companies move beyond training increasingly capable models to deploying them for millions of users. Inference requires models to repeatedly process requests, making the cost, speed and energy efficiency of the underlying hardware critical to companies operating AI services at scale.