Dutch AI Chip Startup EUCLYD Raises $220M, Ex-ASML CEO Joins

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-15

Eindhoven-based semiconductor startup EUCLYD just raised over €200 million ($220 million) in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Samsung, Somerset Capital Partners, the EQT-managed Scaleup Europe Fund, and Innovation Industries. Additional investors include EIFO (Denmark's export and investment fund), imec.xpand, the Brabant Development Agency (BOM), and Quadri. But the headline isn't just the money. Peter Wennink, the former President and CEO of chip-equipment giant ASML, is joining Euclyd's board as Chairman. That's a major vote of confidence from someone who knows the semiconductor industry inside and out. ### Why This Matters for AI Infrastructure AI is hungry. As foundation models get more capable, they demand more compute power, more memory bandwidth, and more capital to build out data centers. It's a bottleneck that threatens to slow down progress. EUCLYD says it has the answer: ultra-efficient infrastructure that spans custom compute silicon, memory architecture, and data center systems. At the heart of their approach are two products: craftwerk, which they call the world's first agentic AI silicon, and craftwerk station CWS, described as the world's lowest-power exascale AI factory. Together, they pair programmable ASIC compute with processor-memory co-design and system-level optimization. The goal? Break through the memory and efficiency constraints that hold back AI performance. "AI is becoming a foundation of economic growth, scientific discovery, and national competitiveness," said Bernardo Kastrup, founder and CEO of EUCLYD. "But its potential will remain constrained unless we fundamentally change the infrastructure beneath it. This financing accelerates our mission to make intelligence abundant through greater efficiency, lower cost per token, and broader access to advanced AI." ### A European Challenger in a Global Race Founded in 2024 by Kastrup and Atul Sinha at High Tech Campus Eindhoven, EUCLYD is positioning itself as a European challenger in the global race to make AI computing cheaper and more energy-efficient. The company aims to achieve what it calls "Abundant Intelligence"—a future where advanced AI isn't limited by infrastructure costs, power availability, or geography. Dede Goldschmidt, Senior Vice President of Samsung Electronics and Head of the Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Centre, added: "The next phase of AI will be defined not only by model innovation, but also by the efficiency and scalability of its infrastructure. EUCLYD combines an accomplished team with a differentiated vision addressing constraints in AI data centers." With the new capital, EUCLYD plans to expand its engineering team, accelerate its silicon and systems roadmap, deepen industry partnerships, and sell into enterprise, government, and hyperscale AI markets. The Series A is just the first major step toward building the chip and systems capacity needed to make AI abundant. For those watching the European startup scene, EUCLYD is one to keep an eye on. If they can deliver on their promise, they could reshape how AI infrastructure is built—not just in Europe, but globally.