Startup Stream Computing CEO Denies Company’s Liquidity Crunch

Credit: CFP

BEIJING, January 19 (TMTPOST)—Mei Di, Co-Founder and CEO of Stream Computing, on Friday responded to earlier reports of salary arrears and infighting in the Chinese AI chip startup.

Stream Computing had just completed its latest financing round on December 25, 2023, led by the Guangzhou Production and Investment Group, with follow-up investments from the Guangzhou Development District Industry Fund Investment Group and the KCI Group, said Mei.

Several projects have been initiated, and the order volume has surpassed one billion yuan. Additionally, the company continues to focus on the development of the RISC-V open-source ecosystem, advancing the standardization of the Matrix instruction set within international foundations, he added.

Mei emphasized that the company is in stable operation. Regarding salary arrears, he responded, “The resignation of the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) led to a salary payment delay from June 2023. Some employees initiated arbitration against the company from July. I fully paid employees’ salary by November using my own money and borrowings.”

Founded in April 2019, Stream Computing is mainly engaged in developing AI-specific architecture processors (DSA Processor) based on the RISC-V instruction set. As of now, the company has 230 employees, with over 60% holding postgraduate degrees, and over 90% are involved in research and development. The company has applied for 194 patents, with invention patents accounting for 96%.

Prior to these developments, Stream Computing had completed six financing rounds, with investors including Sequoia China, JD Group and CITIC Securities.

“The company is making preparations to launch a complete open-source solution based on self-developed chips and the MLIR compiler to address the ecological issues of computing power,” Mei said.

Mei also hinted that online rumors were “malicious slander and defamation from people with a hidden agenda.”

“After seven months of salary delay, half of the employees are still with the company, so do most leaders with strong research and development capabilities. My personal equity and the company’s founding equity have not changed at all; no stake has been divested from the company,” said Mei in a post on his Wechat Moment.