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Axelera AI Officially Launches AIPU Chip Europa with 629 TOPS of AI Compute
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Dutch chip startup Axelera AI officially launched its second-generation AIPU chip Europa on September 15 local time. This SoC delivers 629 TOPS of AI compute through 8 AI processing cores and integrates 16 RISC-V vector processing cores. The product will be sold in two forms: chips and PCIe AICs, targeting the AI compute acceleration market. IT Home reported this news on September 16.
Europa is the second-generation AIPU product launched by Axelera AI. AIPU stands for AI Processing Unit, mainly aimed at artificial intelligence computing tasks. The company is a Dutch chip startup, and this launch marks the entry of its second-generation product into the market. Related reading shows that Axelera had previously launched the AI inference processor Europa.
In terms of key specifications, Europa supports INT4, INT8, and INT16 data formats, integrates 128MB on-chip L2 cache, supports 256-bit LPDDR5 memory, and provides 4 PCIe Gen4 lanes. Its overall power consumption is 45W, and it achieves 629 TOPS of compute through 8 AI processing cores. In addition, the chip also integrates 16 RISC-V vector processing cores for auxiliary processing. These configurations show that it seeks a balance among compute, memory bandwidth, and I/O expansion.
Axelera AI will sell Europa in two forms: chips and PCIe AICs. This means customers can either purchase standalone chips or directly adopt the accelerator card form factor. PCIe AICs are usually easy to integrate into servers or workstations. However, the original text did not disclose Europa's specific price or launch regions.
In terms of performance claims, Axelera AI says that Europa's Token throughput per unit power can reach 6 times that of GPU solutions. Under equal-price conditions, its Token throughput can reach more than 8 times that of the best competitors. These data come from the manufacturer's own tests or claims, and actual performance still awaits third-party verification. If true, Europa will form a differentiated selling point in energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Currently, the AI chip market is highly competitive, GPU solutions dominate, and specialized AI accelerators continue to emerge. Europa enters with 629 TOPS of compute and 45W power consumption, trying to establish an advantage in energy efficiency ratio. Its support for formats such as INT4, INT8, and INT16 also helps adapt to inference tasks of different precisions. For AI deployment scenarios that need to control power consumption and cost, such products may be attractive.
Looking ahead, Europa's actual deployment results after official launch, the maturity of its software toolchain, and customer adoption will become focal points. Whether Axelera AI can use its second-generation product to expand market share also depends on its ecosystem building and delivery capabilities. At present, the company has opened up sales channels through two forms: chips and PCIe AICs. As more test data is published, Europa's competitiveness will be further tested.
