Bengaluru-based Agrani Labs, an AI semiconductor startup founded by former executives from Intel and AMD, has come out of stealth after raising USD 8 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from angel investors.

The company said the funds will be used to scale its engineering team and advance product development. Agrani Labs is focused on building AI computing solutions from India, as demand for AI-driven data centre infrastructure continues to grow globally.

Founded by Dheemanth Nagaraj, Ashok Jagannathan, Srikanth Nimmagadda and Rajesh Vivekanandham, Agrani Labs is working on the development of a high-performance AI graphics processing unit aimed at data centre workloads. The market for AI GPUs has been expanding rapidly but remains largely controlled by a small number of global companies.

Agrani Labs is pursuing a full-stack AI compute strategy, covering both hardware and software. Alongside GPU design, the startup is developing its own software stack, including compilers, libraries, system software and AI frameworks to support its hardware platform.

The company has also onboarded Vinod Dham, widely known as the “Father of the Pentium,” as a founding advisor. Dham has played a significant role in shaping processor roadmaps at Intel and has been closely involved with India’s semiconductor ecosystem.

Agrani Labs said it has made progress on architecture and product definition and has built early versions of its hardware and software stack. It is also collaborating with academic institutions, semiconductor partners, government research bodies and software ecosystems to speed up development.