EXCLUSIVE — Chip startup Bolt Graphics seeking to raise $100 million at about a $700 million valuation, sources say

CEO Darwesh Singh says the capital raise is well under way Startup first targets 3D artists and game developers before broader consumer push Bolt spent about six years developing hardware amid historically cautious venture-capital backing By Max A. Cherney SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 15 (Reuters) — Chip-design startup Bolt Graphics is seeking to raise roughly $100 million at a valuation of about $700 million as part of an effort to make a graphics chip to compete with Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, according to three people familiar with the matter. The thirst for AI computing and the financial frenzy surrounding it poured billions of dollars of profit into the likes of Nvidia and AMD, which have in turn focused their efforts on improving the underlying hardware. Bolt is seeking to design chips that will focus on non-AI areas such as the high-precision calculations supercomputers perform and graphics for videogames. The fundraising effort is ongoing and the amount of capital and valuation Bolt is seeking could change, the people said. Reuters could not learn which investors were leading the funding round. The funding could test whether investors have the appetite to back chip startups t