The San Francisco-based startup has brought on a renowned researcher in control theory and intelligent systems as a scientific advisor, aiming to solidify its Artificial Chip Intelligence (ACI®) approach and revolutionize the semiconductor industry.
The future of chip design increasingly seems less reliant on traditional tools and more driven by artificial intelligence. Moving in this direction is Cognichip, a young company that has already made waves in the tech ecosystem by introducing its concept of Artificial Chip Intelligence (ACI®), a method promising to cut development times in half and reduce semiconductor production costs by 75%.
Now, the company has taken a further step in its growth by announcing the addition of Peyman Mohajerin Esfahani, Ph.D., as a scientific advisor to its research team. Announced on August 14th in San Francisco, this move strengthens Cognichip’s vision of integrating advanced knowledge in control theory, optimization, and adaptive systems to meet the rising challenges of the semiconductor industry.
Peyman Mohajerin is not an ordinary researcher. He currently serves as an associate professor at the University of Toronto and TU Delft in the Netherlands, and co-directs the Delft-AI Energy Lab, leading research on how intelligent systems can operate in dynamic, uncertain environments.
His work intersects with some of today’s biggest technological challenges, including control of systems, information theory, machine learning, and optimization under uncertainty. His applications range from autonomous systems and robotics to energy infrastructure and smart grids.
He has received numerous awards, such as the IEEE Control Systems Society’s George S. Axelby Outstanding Paper Award, the European Control Award, and the prestigious INFORMS Frederick W. Lanchester Prize. Within the scientific community, he is regarded as a leading authority on managing and modeling uncertainty in complex systems.
This specialization makes him an ideal fit to reinforce Cognichip’s vision of creating AI-native chip design flows that are resilient, adaptive, and reliable in highly variable environments.
Cognichip’s core innovation, ACI®, is an AI model that applies physical and mathematical principles of semiconductor design to a machine learning system capable of generating real-time solutions.
Traditional chip design is a lengthy, costly, and highly specialized process requiring multidisciplinary teams, EDA software, and months or years of simulations, validations, and testing.
Cognichip aims to revolutionize this by automating much of the design process through an AI trained on silicon physics and manufacturing constraints. According to the company, this approach enables:
– Reducing design cycles by 50%, speeding up time-to-market.
– Cutting development costs by up to 75%, democratizing hardware design.
– Optimizing performance, power consumption, and energy efficiency by dynamically tailoring designs to customer needs.
Faraj Aalaei, CEO and founder of Cognichip, explains:
> “Peyman’s research has transformed how we understand intelligence in reliable systems operating under uncertainty. His expertise will help ensure that ACI® can meet real-world challenges and inspire confidence in teams integrating it into their design workflows.”
In a video, Aalaei highlights that Peyman’s work is key to creating more robust, adaptable chips, emphasizing the importance of this collaboration in shaping the future of semiconductor design.
The industry faces a paradox: as chips become more powerful, they also become exponentially more complex to design. Conventional techniques based on predefined rules and iterative simulations are no longer sufficient.
For Mohajerin, the solution is clear:
> “Chip design is becoming increasingly complex, and old methods just don’t cut it anymore. What Cognichip is building is the right answer to ease industry pains—creating smarter, more adaptive workflows that provide tangible value to both individual innovators and large teams.”
The challenge is immense, especially with advancing nodes at 3 nm, 2 nm, or even 1.4 nm, where the number of parameters—from power and thermal dissipation to transistor density—exceeds human and traditional software capabilities. In this context, AI shifts from a useful tool to an essential pillar.
One of Cognichip’s most exciting promises is democratizing semiconductor design. For decades, hardware development has lagged behind software in speed due to the prohibitively high entry costs for chip innovation.
By drastically reducing costs and development times, ACI® opens doors for startups, universities, and hobbyists to design custom chips much like how software is developed today—a paradigm shift that could accelerate innovation across AI, automotive, energy, and quantum computing sectors.
Cognichip’s founders hail from top tech companies like Amazon, Google, Apple, Aquantia, Synopsys, and KLA, bringing direct experience with the challenges of large-scale chip design. Backed by $33 million in initial funding from investors such as Mayfield, Lux Capital, FPV, and Candou Ventures, it has positioned itself as one of Silicon Valley’s promising deep tech ventures.
The expertise of Mohajerin adds significant value, especially given his focus on uncertainty in critical systems. Chips operate in imperfect realities, exposed to manufacturing variations, voltage fluctuations, temperature changes, and unpredictable workloads.
His approach to control under uncertainty will be vital for ACI® to adapt to these conditions, potentially leading to more reliable, resilient, and adaptive chips that reduce failures and extend device lifespans.
Cognichip is part of a broader trend towards AI-defined hardware. Companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Intel are exploring similar paths, but Cognichip sets itself apart by making AI the core of the design process rather than an auxiliary tool.
If successful, this innovation could ripple beyond semiconductors, enabling faster, cheaper, and more efficient designs that unlock new applications such as advanced medical devices, smarter resilient energy grids, safer autonomous systems, and sustainable energy solutions.
In summary, the addition of Peyman Mohajerin as a scientific advisor is more than symbolic for Cognichip. It embodies the merging of rigorous academic expertise in uncertain systems with a pressing industrial need to innovate faster and cheaper—addressing an industry that has become too slow and costly for today’s market demands.
In a sector where hardware drives the pace of technological advancement globally, Cognichip aims to accelerate that pace with a clear message: the future of chips will be written by artificial intelligence.
FAQs:
1. What is Cognichip’s ACI®?
ACI® (Artificial Chip Intelligence) is an AI platform designed to automate and optimize chip design, lowering costs and development times while boosting performance and energy efficiency.
2. Who is Peyman Mohajerin Esfahani and why is he important for Cognichip?
He is an internationally renowned researcher in uncertain control and intelligent systems, a professor at Toronto and Delft, with multiple awards. His expertise supports Cognichip’s goal of building resilient, adaptive design flows.
3. What impact could Cognichip have on the semiconductor industry?
It could democratize hardware design, enabling more players to create custom chips and accelerating innovation in AI, energy, automotive, and high-performance computing sectors.
4. How is Cognichip financed?
With $33 million in initial funding from investors like Mayfield, Lux Capital, FPV, and Candou Ventures, founded by veterans from tech giants such as Amazon, Google, and Apple.
via: cognichip.ai