UAE-based fabless semiconductor startup Mastiska has secured $10 million in a seed funding round, backed primarily by GCC sovereign wealth funds, as it pushes to develop sovereign AI hardware and data-centre-class inference accelerators.
Founded in 2024 by Suresh Sugumar, Mastiska is building a UAE-based sovereign semiconductor ecosystem using open-source technologies. The company is grounded in the belief that sovereign AI begins with sovereign silicon — and aims to provide nations with full technological autonomy in AI infrastructure.
Under its engineering model, Mastiska’s model-creation team in Abu Dhabi and VLSI design team in India will collaborate to develop next-generation AI chips. The company will also offer full audit access to sovereign customers for enhanced cybersecurity assurance.
With the newly raised capital, Mastiska plans to develop data-centre-class inference accelerators, build UAE-based sovereign silicon, and roll out its first commercial product: custom FPGA cards equipped with proprietary IP. These cards are designed as fully deployable accelerators rather than prototypes.
Mastiska is also working on brain-inspired model architectures, including modified transformers aimed at improving energy efficiency and performance.
The startup is targeting markets beyond the U.S.–China AI chip competition, focusing on the GCC, South Asia, BRICS nations, Southeast Asia, and the Global South—regions prioritising strategic autonomy and reduced dependence on foreign chip ecosystems.
In summary, Mastiska aims to enable countries to achieve technological independence in the AI era through sovereign silicon and advanced inference acceleration hardware.
