March 9, 2026 -
By Sally Ward-Foxton, EE Times
Netherlands-based Axelera has completed a funding round of over $250 million, bringing the AI chip company’s total raised to $450 million. This is the largest ever funding round for an AI chip company in the EU, according to the company.
Axelera’s record-breaking funding round is a vote of confidence for the company’s technology and market, but it also indicates that investors’ confidence in European chip companies is growing, Axelera CEO Fabrizio Del Maffeo told EE Times.
“Investors increasingly recognize that Europe has world-class AI talent,” Del Maffeo said. “Many of the people building Axelera helped create globally successful semiconductor companies over the past few decades—that capability has always existed.”
As sovereign AI infrastructure gains strategic importance, companies like Axelera are at the center of discussions, he added. Axelera is receiving funding as part of the DARE project, an EU-funded initiative to develop a European HPC stack, for which Axelera is developing an AI accelerator chiplet. This project is on track at the current architectural coordination and software interoperability phase, Del Maffeo said.