Cornami
Cornami is a Santa Clara-based semiconductor company founded in 2012 by Gordon Campbell, Paul Master, and Fred Furtek to deliver specialized computing hardware for privacy-preserving AI workloads.
Profile
Design and build specialized semiconductor systems that perform artificial intelligence workloads on encrypted data without decryption, enabling privacy-preserving computation at near-plaintext speeds.
Cornami is a Santa Clara-based semiconductor company founded in 2012 by Gordon Campbell, Paul Master, and Fred Furtek to deliver specialized computing hardware for privacy-preserving AI workloads. The company operates at the intersection of high-performance computing and cryptography, with a focus on Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE)—technology that allows computation on encrypted data without exposing the plaintext. Cornami's flagship product is the Tigris microprocessor and its Mx Series FracTLcore® Server Systems, including the MX64 rack-scale platform housing 64 Tigris chips and 2,048 FracTLcores. The technology is built on a dynamically morphable compute architecture that reconfigures at runtime to match specific workload demands.
Since its launch, the company has raised $212 million across 15 funding rounds, including a $68 million Series C led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (closed May 2022) and a $40 million raise filed in September 2025. In June 2025, founder and executive chairman Gordon Campbell assumed the CEO role from Walden Rhines, who had led the company for five years. The company recruited Craig Gentry—widely known as the father of FHE and a MacArthur and Gödel Prize winner—as Chief Scientist of Algorithms to enhance its cryptography efforts.
Cornami's current revenue stands at $3.8 million (2024), with the company targeting $10+ million ARR at 70%+ gross margins through deployments of the MX64 across defense, fintech, and enterprise sectors. In September 2025, Cornami and DESILO (a Korea-based privacy-tech startup) announced the deployment of an FHE-based large language model processing sensitive healthcare and financial data without decryption. A November 2025 research collaboration with DESILO demonstrated 80× faster encrypted matrix multiplication versus prior state-of-the-art, narrowing the long-standing performance gap that has limited FHE adoption. The company views the market opportunity as enterprises increasingly caught between regulatory pressure (HIPAA, GDPR) and the competitive need for AI-driven insights on sensitive data.
Products by Cornami
Who buys this
- Financial services firms and banks requiring AI on encrypted client data without compliance risk
- Healthcare providers and life sciences companies processing patient or clinical trial data under regulatory constraints
- Defense and government agencies requiring quantum-resistant secure computing for classified or sensitive workloads
- Enterprise cloud service providers building zero-trust, privacy-first data collaboration platforms
- Blockchain and Web3 projects leveraging encrypted compute for decentralized applications
Publicly disclosed clients
- DESILO (Korea-based privacy-tech startup; September 2025 partnership announcement for FHE LLM deployment)
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Hardware-software codesign tailored for FHE: Unlike general-purpose GPUs that bottleneck on encrypted data movement, Cornami's Tigris architecture and FracTLcore fabric are built specifically for dataflow-intensive homomorphic operations.
- World-class cryptography talent: Recruitment of Craig Gentry (MacArthur Fellow, father of FHE, Gödel Prize winner) as Chief Scientist elevates algorithm innovation and credibility in a field where theory-practice gaps remain wide.
- Deployments and revenue traction: MX64 systems actively in production across defense, fintech, and enterprise customers, with 2024 revenue of $3.8M and gross margins above 70%, closing the usual gap between academic FHE work and commercial viability.
Watch for
- Unproven scale: $3.8M revenue (2024) is still early; 25 systems in customer hands represents a narrow installed base, and $10M+ ARR target is not yet confirmed. Market adoption of FHE-based systems remains niche.
- Leadership transition risk: Gordon Campbell returned as CEO in June 2025 after Walden Rhines stepped back. Founder-era re-entry often signals executive churn or strategic pivot; execution under new leadership will be critical heading into the $40M capital raise.
- Competitive threat from cloud providers: NVIDIA GPUs dominate AI infrastructure; AWS, Google, and Microsoft are investing in privacy-preserving AI via TEEs, differential privacy, and federated learning—alternative approaches that may commoditize or displace FHE if they reach sufficient performance.
Recent moves
- 10mo ago DESILO and Cornami Announce Breakthrough in Encrypted AI Computation with 80× faster matrix multiplication
- 1y ago Cornami and DESILO Launch Deployable FHE-Based Large Language Model for privacy-preserving AI at near-plaintext speeds
- 1y ago Cornami files notice of exempt offering to raise $40 million in new funding
- 1y ago Gordon Campbell appointed CEO; Walden Rhines steps down after five years leading the company
Key Information
- Industry
- AI Hardware
- Founded
- 2011
- Headquarters
- Santa Clara
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cornami?
Cornami is a Santa Clara-based semiconductor company founded in 2012 that designs specialized hardware for running artificial intelligence on encrypted data without decryption. The company specializes in Fully Homomorphic Encryption technology, enabling organizations to perform privacy-preserving computation at near-plaintext speeds.
What is Fully Homomorphic Encryption?
Fully Homomorphic Encryption is cryptographic technology that allows computation on encrypted data without first decrypting it. This enables sensitive information to remain protected throughout processing, making it ideal for AI and machine learning on confidential data in finance, healthcare, and government sectors.
What are Cornami's main products?
Cornami's flagship products are the Tigris microprocessor and the MX64 rack-scale platform, which houses 64 Tigris chips and 2,048 FracTLcores. The MX Series systems are designed to handle encrypted AI workloads across defense, fintech, and enterprise cloud applications at scale.
What industries use Cornami's technology?
Cornami serves financial services firms, healthcare providers, defense agencies, and enterprise cloud service providers. The company's notable partnership with DESILO, a Korea-based privacy-tech startup, demonstrates deployment of FHE technology for encrypted large language models processing sensitive healthcare and financial data without decryption.
What is Cornami's revenue?
Cornami reported $3.8 million in revenue during 2024 with gross margins exceeding 70%. The company is targeting $10 million annual recurring revenue through deployments of its MX64 platform. Cornami has raised $212 million across 15 funding rounds, including a significant $68 million Series C from SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Who is Cornami's CEO?
Gordon Campbell, the company's founder, assumed the CEO role in June 2025, replacing Walden Rhines who had led Cornami for five years. The company also recruited Craig Gentry, a MacArthur Prize winner and cryptography expert known as the father of Fully Homomorphic Encryption, as Chief Scientist of Algorithms.
How Cornami compares
Direct head-to-head against 2 competitors. Picked by 7wData.
Cornami
- Positioning
- Design and build specialized semiconductor systems that perform artificial intelligence workloads on encrypted data without decryption, enabling privacy-preserving computation at near-plaintext speeds.
- Customer segments
- Financial services firms and banks requiring AI on encrypted client data without compliance risk
- Strengths
- Hardware-software codesign tailored for FHE: Unlike general-purpose GPUs that bottleneck on encrypted data movement, Cornami's Tigris architecture and FracTLcore fabric are built specifically for dataflow-intensive homomorphic operations.
- Watch for
- Unproven scale: $3.8M revenue (2024) is still early; 25 systems in customer hands represents a narrow installed base, and $10M+ ARR target is not yet confirmed. Market adoption of FHE-based systems remains niche.
- Recent moves
- DESILO and Cornami Announce Breakthrough in Encrypted AI Computation with 80× faster matrix multiplication
Niobium Microsystems
- Positioning
- Dayton-based FHE hardware accelerator startup delivering a purpose-built PCIe card targeting enterprise, defense, and quantum-resilient encrypted workloads.
- Customer segments
- Financial services, healthcare, and defense buyers wanting hardware-accelerated FHE without replacing existing server software stacks.
- Strengths
- First dedicated FHE SoC in a drop-in PCIe card form factor, accelerating existing FHE software stacks without full infrastructure replacement.
- Watch for
- December 2025 raise was a seed follow-on, not a Series A. Still converting prototype to production silicon, with no named customer deployments confirmed.
- Recent moves
- $23M+ oversubscribed seed follow-on closed December 2025 to fund second-generation FHE platform development and early customer pilots.
Zama
- Positioning
- Paris-based open-source FHE software company, first FHE unicorn, pivoting toward a cross-chain confidential blockchain protocol with commercial licensing.
- Customer segments
- Web3 developers and blockchain protocol teams. Enterprise ML teams in finance and healthcare seeking software-only FHE are secondary buyers.
- Strengths
- Open-source TFHE-rs and Concrete ML toolchain, with $50M+ contract value signed within six months of commercialization launch.
- Watch for
- January 2026 $ZAMA token auction raised $118M (oversubscribed 218%), confirming a blockchain-first pivot. Enterprise regulated-sector roadmap and dedicated support may lag.
- Recent moves
- $57M Series B closed June 2025, reaching unicorn status at $1B+ valuation. Confidential Blockchain Protocol mainnet launched December 2025.
Sources
- cornami.com — Company overview, product portfolio (FracTLcore fabric, TruStream programming model, MX Series hardware), target markets
- cornami.com — Leadership team including Fred Furtek, Craig Gentry, Marty Franz, Puneet Singh, and Denoid Tucker
- www.prnewswire.com — September 2025 DESILO partnership, FHE LLM deployment, plaintext-ciphertext matrix multiplication (PCMM) innovation
- cornami.com — June 2025 CEO leadership transition: Walden Rhines stepping down, Gordon Campbell assuming CEO role
- finance.yahoo.com — November 2025 research announcement: 80× faster encrypted matrix multiplication with Craig Gentry and DESILO
- www.intelligence360.news — September 2025 SEC filing for $40 million capital raise
- tracxn.com — Funding history: $212M total raised, 15 funding rounds, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 Series C ($68M), Applied Ventures, recent Series D ($1.4M July 2025)
- www.cbinsights.com — 2024 revenue ($3.8M), target customers in defense/fintech/enterprise, MX64 deployment status
- www.eetimes.com — Tigris morphable silicon architecture, FracTLcore, Mx64 system specifications and deployment details