A senior leader at Fractile, one of the UK’s most closely watched AI chip startups, believes the company could become Britain’s first trillion-dollar enterprise.
Carmen Alfonso Rico, who joined Fractile as vice president of business operations in June, made the claim on the Tech.eu podcast. She framed the opportunity as a direct challenge to Nvidia’s dominance in AI hardware.
Rico previously founded Cocoa Ventures in 2021, raising two funds worth $17 million and $23 million respectively. The firm participated in Fractile’s 2024 funding round. She now splits her time between Fractile and Cocoa Ventures, though a Cocoa executive has assumed day-to-day management of the fund.
“We have a unique chance to build Britain’s first one trillion dollar company,” Rico said, provided Fractile wins the AI hardware race. The startup has yet to ship a commercial product, leaving a considerable gap between current reality and that trillion-dollar vision.
Still, momentum appears to be building. Bloomberg reported Fractile is raising $600 million at a $5.6 billion valuation. The company has also reportedly signed an agreement to supply chips to Anthropic. Backers include Accel and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
Fractile’s architecture, developed by Oxford PhD Walter Goodwin who founded the company in 2022, keeps data on the chip itself. Standard processors constantly move information between the chip and separate memory modules. Fractile says its design can run large language models up to 100 times faster while cutting operational costs by 90 percent.
Rico described the dual role as a strategic advantage for Cocoa Ventures and its portfolio. She cited improved networks and access stemming from Fractile’s position in the global AI ecosystem. Portfolio founders raised no objections, she added.
Fractile expects its specialized chips to reach data centers by 2027. That timeline will determine whether Rico’s trillion-dollar ambition becomes a credible forecast or remains an audacious startup pitch.
