This Spanish AI Startup Just Hit Unicorn Status With a $1.7 Billion Valuation

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-27

The AI industry is about to get a whole lot more interesting. A Spanish startup just pulled off something huge, and it could change how we think about building and running AI models. Multiverse Computing, based in San Sebastian, Spain, just announced a massive $570 million Series C funding round. That brings the company's pre-money valuation to a cool $1.7 billion, making it a certified unicorn. To put that in perspective, that's five times what it was worth after its last big funding round. ### Who's Betting Big on This? The list of investors reads like a who's who of global finance and tech. The round was co-led by: - **Forgepoint Capital International** - **BNPP SIVF** (that's BNP Paribas's venture arm) - **Bullhound Capital** But they're not alone. Other big names jumped in too, including Santander Alternative Investments, HP Inc., Orange Ventures, and even the Qatar Development Bank. Total funding for the company now sits at $800 million, and they might still bring in a few more strategic investors. ### What Does Multiverse Computing Actually Do? Here's where it gets interesting. Multiverse Computing is all about making AI more efficient and sovereign. They've built a platform that lets organizations run powerful AI models without needing massive, expensive infrastructure. "The AI industry has accepted a false constraint for years," says Enrique Lizaso, co-founder and CEO. "That powerful models require expensive infrastructure. That constraint is gone." He's not wrong. The company's core technology, called CompactifAI, can shrink large language models by up to 80-95% with almost no loss in accuracy. Think of it like compressing a massive file into something that fits on a USB drive, but without losing any quality. ### Why This Matters for Enterprises For most companies, running AI today means either sending data to the cloud or buying expensive hardware. Multiverse Computing flips that script. Their platform lets you run AI: - On a smartphone - Inside your own data center - On a factory floor with no internet connection This is huge for industries where data privacy is critical, like healthcare, finance, or defense. Instead of routing everything through a hyperscaler, you can keep control and save money. ### The Tech Behind the Magic At the heart of Multiverse's platform is CompactifAI, a compression technology that uses tensor networks. That's a mathematical framework borrowed from quantum physics. Dr. Roman Orus, the company's Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder, pioneered this application. The result? AI that runs faster, uses less energy, and can be deployed anywhere. Their CompactifAI Router decides in real time whether a workload should run locally or be sent to the cloud, optimizing for cost and performance. ### The Big Picture Damien Henault from Forgepoint Capital sums it up well: "The winners in the next phase of this multi-trillion-dollar market will be the ones that make every data center, every GPU, and every enterprise deployment dramatically more efficient." Multiverse Computing sits right at that intersection. They're not just a compression company anymore. They've evolved into a complete AI foundry and operating system. For enterprises, this means saving hundreds of millions while getting better performance. This is one of those moments where the AI industry might just take a big step forward. And it's coming from a startup in Spain that's proving you don't need the biggest infrastructure to build the smartest AI.