"This report is not just a snapshot," Peddie added. "It's a field guide to the future of silicon, helping investors, OEMs, and policymakers identify which technologies will survive the shakeout and which will fade away."
TIBURON, Calif., Aug. 25, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- In JPR's AI Processor report, 121 companies have been identified as making or threatening to make an AI processor—from tiny IoT-class devices to hyperscale data center accelerators. Collectively, these firms have attracted more than $13.5 billion in start-up funding since 2006, with dozens raising $100 million or more in the past year alone.
"AI processors are experiencing a Cambrian explosion, reminiscent of the 3D graphics boom of the late 1990s and the XR wave of the 2010s," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of JPR. "We expect rapid consolidation in the coming years, with the 121 players we track today shrinking to around 25 survivors by the end of this decade."
Global race, shifting power
The US currently leads in AI hardware and software, but that lead is under threat. China's DeepSeek and Huawei continue to push advanced chips, India has announced an indigenous GPU program targeting production by 2029, and policy shifts in Washington are reshaping the playing field. In Q2, the rollback of export restrictions allowed US companies like Nvidia and AMD to strike multibillion-dollar deals in Saudi Arabia.
A roadmap through the chaos
With 121 companies spread across every major tech hub, JPR's database captures the breadth of the market — categorizing vendors into five segments:
- AI-IoT—Ultra-low-power inference in microcontrollers or small SoCs (TinyML class). High unit volumes (hundreds of millions) but low ASP.
- AI-Edge—On-device or near-device inference in 1–100W range, outside data centers. Includes robotics, smart cameras, and industrial AI gateways.
- AI-Automotive—Distinct enough to break out from AI-Edge, with different economics and design cycles (ADAS and autonomous driving compute).
- AI-Data center training—High-end accelerators for LLM and model training. Low unit volumes but extreme ASP.
- AI-Data center inference—Hyperscale serving of AI models at scale. Mix of GPUs, NPUs, and custom ASICs.
And they're scattered all over the world.
See Figure 1. AI processor companies in each country.
Within the US, California and Texas are the centers of activity.
See Figure 2. States with AI processor companies.
This information is sourced from the JPR AI Processors database, which has over 1,700 data elements and is included in the quarterly AI Processor report provided by JPR.
Big bets and bold experiments
The report highlights significant developments from the quarter:
- AI investment is booming, with $13.5 billion poured into 96 start-ups and an estimated $60 billion in R&D from 26 public companies.
- Tenstorrent secured over $693 million in Series D funding, with investors including Samsung, LG, and Jeff Bezos backing its open RISC-V CPUs and modular chiplet approach.
- Lightmatter raised $400 million for photonic interconnects, while Germany's Black Semiconductor received $275 million in state-led support.
- Imagination Technologies unveiled its E-Series GPUs, blending graphics and AI in a unified architecture designed for automotive and edge devices.
- Flow Computing advanced its Parallel Processing Unit, a fresh take on parallelism embedded directly into CPUs.
"This report is not just a snapshot," Peddie added. "It's a field guide to the future of silicon, helping investors, OEMs, and policymakers identify which technologies will survive the shakeout and which will fade away."
Availability
The Q3 2025 AI Processors Market Development Report is available now to JPR subscribers. It includes a companion database, which covers over 1,700 data points on every tracked company, along with analyst commentary and quarterly updates.
About Jon Peddie Research
Jon Peddie Research has been active in the graphics and multimedia industries for over 30 years. JPR is a technically oriented multimedia and graphics research and consulting firm. Based in Tiburon, California, JPR provides consulting, research, and other specialized services to technology companies in various fields, including graphics development, multimedia for professional applications and consumer electronics, high-end computing, and Internet-access product development. JPR's AI Processors is a quarterly report on the market activity of all processor companies and types of processors in the AI computing market.
Company contact:
Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research
(415) 435-9368
Media contact:
Carol Warren, Antarra
(714) 890-4500
JPR's AI Processor is a trademark of Jon Peddie Research. All other trade names and trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contact
Jon Peddie, Jon Peddie Research, 1 (415) 435-9368, [email protected], https://www.jonpeddie.com/
Carol Warren, Antarra Communications, 1 7148904500, [email protected], http://www.antarra.com
SOURCE Jon Peddie Research
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