Multiverse Computing targets $570M Series C to shrink AI models and slash inference costs

Multiverse Computing targets a $570m Series C at a $1.7bn valuation to cut AI costs

The Spanish deeptech firm behind CompactifAI is betting that shrinking large language models, rather than scaling them, is where the next round of AI money gets made. Spanish deeptech company that shrinks large language models wants investors to bet that efficiency, rather than sheer scale, is where the next stretch of AI money gets made. Multiverse Computing, based in San Sebastián in Spain's Basque Country, has opened a Series C round targeting up to $570m (€500m), the company said on July 27. The raise would value the startup at roughly $1.7bn (€1.5bn) before the new money arrives, which the company put at about five times its previous valuation. The pitch rests on CompactifAI, a tool Multiverse says can compress a large language model by up to 95% with what it calls immaterial accuracy loss. It borrows tensor networks from quantum physics to strip redundancy out of a model, cutting the memory, cost, and energy each query burns. The technique sits inside a broader compression race that has pulled in far larger players. In practice, the company sells slimmed-down versions of open models such as Meta's Llama, packaged to run on cheaper hardware or on-premises rather than inside a hyperscaler's data centre. That edge-to-cloud framing is the heart of the Series C pitch. As inference, the cost of actually running a model, overtakes training as the dominant expense for many buyers, the argument goes, they will pay for the same output at a fraction of the compute and power. It is not the only use Multiverse has found for the maths. The firm, which began in quantum software, has applied the same methods to other problems, including a system to predict floods. The through line is squeezing more out of less, whether the target is a neural network or a river. The round is co-led by Forgepoint Capital International, the BNPP Solar Impulse Venture Fund, and Bullhound Capital, according to the company. If it closes at the top of the range, Multiverse's total funding would reach about $800m across all rounds. The company has not said when it expects to finish raising, nor disclosed the terms attached to the lead investors' stakes. A round that is announced while still open can also close below its target. In June 2025 the firm closed a Series B worth €189m, or about $215m, led by Bullhound with backing from HP Tech Ventures, Toshiba, Forgepoint, SETT, and Spain's CDP Venture Capital. Bloomberg reported in February that Multiverse was in talks at a €1.5bn valuation, the same figure now attached to the Series C. Multiverse was founded in 2019 by chief executive Enrique Lizaso, a former banker, and chief scientific officer Román Orús, a physicist whose work on tensor networks underpins the product. Both the compression business and its quantum tools sit inside a wider European quantum push that has drawn heavy public funding. Its customer list, per the company, runs to Iberdrola, Bosch, Telefónica, Allianz, Bank of Canada, Indra, and PwC. Multiverse also reported steep growth to match its ambitions, claiming a tenfold rise in annualised revenue since the last round and first-quarter sales up 96 times year on year. Those figures are self-reported and have not been independently audited. The bet is a distinctly European one. As models grow more expensive to run, a cluster of the region's startups is chasing the inference bill rather than the frontier. Data-centre electricity demand has become one of the industry's hardest constraints, and trimming the energy a model burns per query is one of the few levers a startup can pull without owning chips or power stations. Multiverse is selling the opposite trade. If the future of AI is smaller, cheaper, and closer to the edge, a compression startup on the Basque coast would rather own that corner than chase the frontier it is quietly trying to cut down to size.

Spain's Multiverse Computing raises $570m at $1.7bn valuation

The Spanish AI compression start-up's funding round is co-led by Forgepoint Capital International, BNPP SIVF and Bullhound Capital, and values the company at a 5x step-up from its Series B. Multiverse Computing, based in San Sebastien, Spain, has announced a $570m (€500m) Series C funding round at a $1.7bn (€1.5bn) pre-money valuation, marking a 5x step-up from its Series B. The round was co-led by Forgepoint Capital International, BNPP SIVF and Bullhound Capital, with commitments from Santander Alternative Investments, Tikehau Capital, HP Inc, Orange Ventures, Scania Invest, NAventures, Qatar Development Bank, Zouk Capital, SETT, EIC Fund, the Basque Government's Hazten Scale-Up Fund and Kutxa Fundazioa. Advised by JP Morgan and Santander CIB, the round is expected to bring Multiverse's total funding to $800m and may remain open to further strategic investors. At the centre of Multiverse's pitch is CompactifAI, a compression technology developed by co-founder and chief scientific officer Dr Román Orús that applies tensor networks, a mathematical framework drawn from quantum physics, to shrink large language models. The company says the approach cuts model size by up to 80 to 95pc with minimal accuracy loss, letting AI run on devices such as smartphones and factory floors without a cloud connection. "The AI industry has accepted a false constraint for years, that powerful models require expensive infrastructure," said co-founder and CEO Enrique Lizaso. "That constraint is gone." Damien Henault, managing director and partner at Forgepoint Capital International, said Multiverse has evolved from a downstream compression technology into what he called a complete AI foundry and operating system, adding that it is the only company his firm has seen with both the technical foundation and commercial traction to become a critical platform for the industry. The company's platform now spans cloud, on-premises and on-device deployment, coordinated by what it calls the CompactifAI Router, alongside a software layer aimed at sovereign AI data centres. Multiverse said annualised revenue has grown more than 10 times since its Series B closed in June 2025, with 96 multiple year-on-year sales growth in the first quarter of 2026. Its models are deployed across drones, cameras, satellites, vehicles and telecom infrastructure, with customers including Allianz, Bosch, Iberdrola, PwC and Telefónica. The new funds will go toward expanding its model library, continued research and development, investment in sovereign AI infrastructure, and building out a regional presence in East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Canada and the US. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.