He Built an AI Chip Company in Europe — Without Ever Designing a Chip | Fabrizio Axelera AI | HumanX

Conference Amsterdam Interview

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At HumanX in Amsterdam, we sat down with Fabrizio Del Maffeo, CEO of Axelera AI. Fabrizio had no background in chip design. Then he set out to build a new AI chip company in Europe. In this conversation, we discuss how Axelera AI was built from scratch, why competing with NVIDIA requires a different approach, why Europe needs more ambition, and where AI infrastructure is heading — from centralized data centers to Edge AI and Physical AI. Highlights: 22:43 — Building an AI chip company without a chip-design background 28:52 — Building the first chip in six months instead of a year 35:46 — Why NVIDIA can't simply copy Axelera's approach 38:05 — Why European companies need to take more risk 38:20 — Europe's lack of ambition 39:06 — Why Europe needs to buy European technology 39:42 — Why centralized AI isn't the answer 40:54 — AI moves into the physical world and edge devices 46:29 — Why founders need to act instead of fearing rejection 47:25 — Expecting rejection 90% of the time 47:40 — The investor who told Fabrizio he was the wrong person to run the company