Mastiska Secures $10M to Advance UAE’s In-House AI Chip Ambitions

Editorial Team

Last updated 27-11-2025

3 min

Mastiska raised USD 10 million to develop inference accelerators for AI models.

The company aims to become a UAE-based fabless semiconductor creator using open-source technology.

Their chip designs can be audited, prioritizing cybersecurity in their offerings.

Target markets include GCC, South East Asia, BRICS, and the Global South.

Their upcoming FPGA cards are set for real deployments, showcasing their technological advances.

UAE-based Mastiska has pulled in USD 10 million in seed funding, with most of the backing coming from sovereign wealth funds across the GCC. The money is meant to push the company’s plans to build data‑centre grade inference accelerators—essentially the heavy‑duty chips that keep modern AI models running. I reckon this move fits neatly into the region’s growing appetite for homegrown tech, something we talk about quite a bit at Arageek when we look at how MENA startups try to stand on their own feet.

The company wants to evolve into a fully fledged, UAE‑based fabless semiconductor outfit, leaning heavily on open‑source technologies. Their thinking is simple enough: if you want sovereign AI, you need sovereign silicon. It’s a bold idea, and believe it or not, they’re splitting their work across two hubs—model creation in Abu Dhabi and a VLSI design team in India. One detail that caught my eye is their promise to let customers audit chip designs for cybersecurity reasons, which isn’t something you see every day in this space.

Mastiska isn’t looking to lock horns with the US–China AI chip rivalry. Instead, it’s targeting customers in the GCC, South East Asia, BRICS nations and the wider Global South. On the flip side, that focus might help them avoid the usual geopolitcal faff that tends to bog down chip startups.

Their first commercial product is set to be custom FPGA cards loaded with the company’s own IP. These aren’t just proof‑of‑concept toys—they want them in real deployments. At the same time, a dedicated model team is experimenting with brain‑inspired architectures, including modified transformers said to deliver boosts in both speed and energy efficiency. Spot on, if they can pull it off.

Mastiska, founded in 2024 by Suresh Sugumar, is positioning itself as a fabless semiconductor startup offering AI chips and data‑centre inference accelerators designed for sovereignty‑minded clients. The aim is straightforward: reduce dependence on American and Chinese suppliers. And from what I’ve seen watching other MENA hardware startups rise and fall, that’s no small ambition… you know?

If they can keep this momentum, they might be chuffed to bits with how the next couple of years play out—though it’s definately too early to call.

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