Multiverse Computing targeting €500m round at unicorn valuation
Sifted ● Covered by 3 sources
Spanish startup Multiverse Computing is raising €500m at a €2bn valuation. Its tech shrinks AI models by up to 95%, so they skip pricey hyperscaler compute.
Based on reporting by Sifted — read the original for the full story.
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Donostia-based Multiverse Computing wants to prove that bigger isn't always better when it comes to AI, and investors are apparently buying the pitch to the tune of €500m. The round, still open, would value the company at €2bn and rank among the largest private tech raises ever completed in Spain. Forgepoint Capital, Bullhound Capital and BNP Paribas's Solar Impulse Venture Fund are co-leading, with the European Innovation Council Fund, Spain's SETT, Qatar Development Bank, National Bank of Canada's NAVentures, Santander Alternative Investments, HP Inc and Orange Ventures all putting money in too.
The pitch centers on CompactifAI, a compression method Multiverse says borrows ideas from quantum physics to shrink large language models by as much as 95% without much loss of accuracy. That matters because it flips the usual AI cost equation. Instead of needing racks of hyperscaler GPUs, a compressed model can supposedly run on a smartphone or inside an offline factory system. Cofounder and CEO Enrique Lizaso put it bluntly in a statement, arguing the industry accepted a false constraint that powerful models need expensive infrastructure, and that constraint no longer holds.
Multiverse isn't just selling a compression trick. It's building a platform meant to match the right compressed model to the right workload, bundling in GPU management, AI services and control systems along the way. The company says its tech already sits inside drones, cameras, satellites, vehicles and telecom gear, and that it counts more than 100 customers spanning manufacturing, finance, energy, aerospace, cybersecurity, defence and life sciences — names like Bosch, Telefónica, Allianz and the Bank of Canada show up on the client list.
The numbers behind the growth story are steep. Lizaso has said the company expects to hit €200m in annual recurring revenue in 2026, and Multiverse claims its annualised revenue has grown more than tenfold year over year. This new round comes barely a year after a $215m Series B, and combined the fundraising pushes Multiverse's total past €700m. The fresh cash is earmarked for expanding the model library, pushing R&D, building out AI infrastructure and extending into Asia, the Middle East and North America.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Efficiency-first AI is the pitch nobody in Silicon Valley wants to hear right now, because it undercuts the entire logic of pouring billions into ever-bigger data centers, and that's exactly why a European scaleup betting on compression instead of scale deserves attention. If Multiverse's numbers hold up, it's a reminder that the AI arms race doesn't have to be won by whoever burns the most compute — sometimes the smarter trick is just needing less of it.
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