This Spanish AI Startup Just Hit Unicorn Status With a $570 Million Series C

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-27

Multiverse Computing, a San Sebastian-based AI scale-up focused on sovereign and efficient AI, just announced a massive $570 million Series C round at a $1.7 billion pre-money valuation. That's five times what the company was worth after its Series B. ### The Round and Its Backers The round was co-led by Forgepoint Capital International, BNPP SIVF, and Bullhound Capital. Other investors include Santander Alternative Investments, Tikehau Capital, HP Inc., Orange Ventures, Scania Invest, NAventures (National Bank of Canada’s corporate venture arm), Qatar Development Bank, Zouk Capital, SETT, EIC Fund, the Basque Government’s Hazten Scale-Up Fund, and Kutxa Fundazioa. This deal brings the company’s total funding to $800 million, inclusive of prior rounds. It may still be open to select additional strategic investors. ### Why This Matters for Enterprise AI “The AI industry has accepted a false constraint for years — that powerful models require expensive infrastructure. That constraint is gone. We have proven that AI can run at full performance on a smartphone, inside a sovereign data centre, on a factory floor with no cloud connection. This round is the moment we scale that proof across every industry that needs it,” said Enrique Lizaso, co-founder and CEO of Multiverse Computing. Founded in 2019, Multiverse Computing helps organizations run secure, production-ready AI with tailored solutions. The goal? Reduce compute costs and retain full control across cloud, data centers, and edge environments. They innovate quantum-inspired AI models. ### The Secret Sauce: CompactifAI At the core of Multiverse’s platform is CompactifAI, a compression technology that applies tensor networks — a mathematical framework from quantum physics — to AI model compression. This was pioneered by co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Román Orús. - Reduces the size of large language models by up to 80-95% with immaterial accuracy loss - AI runs faster and consumes less energy - Can be deployed in environments where sending data to a hyperscaler is too expensive, too slow, or not permitted ### A Full Deployment Spectrum Multiverse’s platform spans the full deployment spectrum for efficient AI: compressed models optimized for cloud, on-premises, and on-device environments. The CompactifAI Router decides in real time whether a workload should run locally or be sent to the cloud. The company is also applying an end-to-end software layer for next-generation AI factories and data centers. This brings model compression, GPU orchestration, AI services, and sovereign-grade controls into a unified platform. For enterprises, this means instead of routing every workload through a hyperscaler and replacing existing infrastructure, Multiverse adds an efficiency layer above it. You match each workload with the right model and backend — while also saving hundreds of millions in the process. ### What Investors Are Saying Damien Henault, Managing Director and Partner at Forgepoint Capital International, said: “The AI industry has built an extraordinary capability on top of an infrastructure model that wasn’t designed to sustain it. The winners in the next phase of this multi-trillion-dollar market will be the ones that make every data centre, every GPU, and every enterprise deployment dramatically more efficient.” “Multiverse sits at the intersection of the infrastructure and the application layers and has evolved from being the leading downstream LLM compression technology to becoming a complete AI foundry and Operating System. It is the only company we’ve seen that has both the technical foundation and the commercial traction to be that critical platform.” ### The Bottom Line This isn't just another funding round. It's a signal that the AI industry is shifting toward efficiency. Instead of throwing more money at bigger models, companies like Multiverse are showing you can do more with less. For enterprise leaders, this means AI that's faster, cheaper, and deployable anywhere — even on a factory floor with no cloud connection.