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

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 Recorded at HumanX in Amsterdam. Subscribe to Nectora for conversations with founders, investors and technology leaders building the future of Europe. #HumanX #AxeleraAI #AIChips #DeepTech #EuropeanTech #Nectora