AI chiplet startup Eliyan draws takeover interest months after $1 billion valuation

Eliyan, a Santa Clara semiconductor startup, has attracted at least one takeover bid. That comes barely two months after it raised $145 million at a $1 billion valuation. The company has hired an investment bank to weigh its strategic options. Those options include a potential target valuation of $3 billion, which would roughly triple the price tag investors put on it in late July. A bid, a banker, and a bigger number As of early October 2026, Eliyan has received at least one offer. The identity of the bidder has not been disclosed. The $3 billion figure is a potential target, not an agreed price. Nobody has publicly committed to paying it. One familiar name has circled before. Eliyan previously held preliminary acquisition discussions with Arm, which also invested $5 million in the startup. Arm has not placed a formal bid as of October 2026. What Eliyan actually builds GPUs currently operate at only 30-40% efficiency because of bandwidth limitations. The expensive chips spend much of their time waiting for data instead of crunching it. Eliyan’s answer is high-speed chiplet interconnects. Chiplets are smaller pieces of silicon combined into one package, rather than one giant monoli...