UAE-based Mastiska has secured $10 million in seed funding, backed mainly by GCC sovereign wealth funds. This investment marks a major step in building next-generation AI hardware from the region.
The new capital will help Mastiska develop data-centre-grade inference accelerators and set up a UAE-based fabless semiconductor company built on open-source technologies.
Mastiska aims to create sovereign AI hardware for countries looking to reduce dependence on U.S. and Chinese chip suppliers. Its philosophy is simple: sovereign AI starts with sovereign silicon.
The company plans to build its AI chips through a model-creation team in Abu Dhabi and a VLSI design team in India. It will also offer sovereign customers full access to audit its chip designs, ensuring strong cybersecurity and transparency.
Mastiska is focusing on the UAE, the broader GCC, Southeast Asia, BRICS nations, and the Global South — regions aiming to build strategic independence in their AI infrastructure.
Given this focus, the company does not intend to enter the U.S.–China AI chip rivalry, choosing instead to serve markets seeking sovereign, autonomous AI solutions.
Mastiska’s first commercial offering will be custom FPGA cards featuring its proprietary IP. These are built as ready-to-deploy accelerators for AI inference workloads, not just prototype hardware.
Meanwhile, the company’s model team is creating brain-inspired architectures, including enhanced transformer variants designed to deliver better performance and improved energy efficiency.
Founded in 2024 by Suresh Sugumar, Mastiska is a fabless semiconductor startup dedicated to building sovereign AI hardware. The company develops data-center-grade inference accelerators and next-generation AI chips for markets across the GCC, South Asia, and the Global South.
At its core, Mastiska aims to create sovereign AI silicon that reduces reliance on foreign chip ecosystems and empowers nations seeking technological independence in the AI age.
Read more- Manish Jain Appointed CEO of Equirus Finance as Group Expands NBFC Operations
