UAE-based Mastiska has raised 10 million in a seed funding round, backed primarily by sovereign wealth funds in the GCC. The funding will support the development of data-centre-class inference accelerators and the establishment of a UAE-based fabless semiconductor company built on open-source technologies.
With the new capital, Mastiska aims to advance its technology stack and build sovereign AI hardware tailored to markets seeking independence from U.S. and Chinese suppliers. The company is founded on the belief that sovereign AI begins with sovereign silicon - a principle driving its plan to develop AI chips through a model-creation team in Abu Dhabi and a VLSI design team in India. The startup also intends to give sovereign customers full access to audit chip designs for cybersecurity assurance.
Mastiska's target markets include the UAE, the wider GCC, Southeast Asia, BRICS nations, and the Global South - regions looking to build strategic autonomy in AI infrastructure. As such, the company does not plan to compete directly in the U.S.-China AI chip race.
