What 10xEngineers does

10xEngineers is a private semiconductor engineering services and IP company founded in 2021, headquartered in San Diego, California, with engineering offices in Lahore, Pakistan and Barcelona, Spain. The company targets fabless system-on-chip (SoC) firms and semiconductor companies that struggle to source specialized RISC-V, Image Signal Processing (ISP), and compiler engineers, offering outsourced verification, design, formal verification, and compiler/toolchain development teams led by co-founder/CEO Bilal Zafar and co-founder Ayesha Chaudhry. The firm markets itself as a talent-as-a-service solution, drawing on engineering staff trained at Digital Alpha Processor, HP, Intel, and Qualcomm to compress customer time-to-market.

The company's product portfolio is layered: (1) an ISP family including the open-source Infinite ISP plus commercial offerings (CUDA ISP, HDR ISP, Polyphase Video Scaler, LumaIQ); (2) Cloud-V, a vendor-agnostic RISC-V cloud platform with CI infrastructure and binary artifactory, designated as the first official RISC-V Lab Partner by RISC-V International; (3) RISC-V uncore IPs including IOPMP and Debug & N-Trace; and (4) AI infrastructure software — Baltoro (MLIR/LLVM compiler stack for custom hardware) and QuantX (hardware-aware quantization producing the proprietary Q4X technique integrated into Llama.cpp). The firm has been an active OpenHW Foundation contributor since 2021 across CVA6, CV-Wally, and RISC-V extensions.

Commercially, 10xEngineers operates a hybrid B2B model combining professional services (verification, ISP design, compilers, formal verification) with IP and software licensing (RISC-V IPs, Baltoro, QuantX). Pricing is not publicly disclosed; engagement is direct enterprise sales supplemented by community-led demand generation through open-source contributions, conference presentations at RISC-V Summits, IEEE ISPASS, and ACM venues, and academic partnerships (Harvey Mudd College, University of Santiago de Compostela). Named customers span OpenHW Foundation, Woodpecker Technologies, Optim Endoscope, and educational institutions, though the commercial fabless SoC client base is not publicly enumerated.

Name

10xEngineers

Legal name

10xEngineers

Website

https://10xengineers.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

10xEngineers is a private semiconductor services and IP company that provides RISC-V verification, Image Signal Processing, compiler development, and AI infrastructure software (QuantX, Baltoro) to fabless SoC firms and semiconductor companies globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Semiconductor Design Services and IP

NAICS

Semiconductor and Other Electronic Component Manufacturing (3344), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)

akta.pro primary industry

Custom & Application-Specific ASIC Design Services (HDAHABAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Hardware/Chip Design IP Cores (Processor, Interface, Analog, Security) (HDAHAFAF), IP Enablement, Characterization & Porting Services (HDAHAFAI)

Keywords

• RISC-V verification services
• Image signal processing
• Formal verification IP
• AI compiler software
• Semiconductor IP cores

Headquarters

HQ city

Irvine

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. RISC-V Services: RISC-V verification and design services including migration from ARM to RISC-V, functional and code coverage, test plan development, regression and automation.
2. Image Signal Processing Services: ISP design, development, and testing services including medical imaging applications.
3. Compilers and Toolchains: ML compiler development using MLIR and LLVM for RISC-V and custom silicon, hardware-specific kernel optimization.
4. Formal Verification: Mathematical hardware assurance using formal verification to exhaustively prove absence of bugs in complex design blocks including NoC, Cache Coherence Managers, and RISC-V Vector Units.
5. AI Infrastructure Software: AI compiler stack and model compression solutions including Baltoro and QuantX for vision and GenAI use cases.
6. RISC-V IPs: Licensing of RISC-V intellectual property including IOPMP and Debug & N-Trace IP cores.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

10xEngineers provides RISC-V processor verification and design services, Image Signal Processing (ISP) solutions, formal verification services, and AI infrastructure software to fabless SoC and semiconductor companies. The company sells proprietary semiconductor IP cores (RISC-V IOPMP, Debug & N-Trace), an open-source ISP framework (Infinite ISP), a RISC-V cloud development platform (Cloud-V), and AI optimization tools (QuantX, Baltoro).

Product overview

10xEngineers offers a comprehensive portfolio of semiconductor IP and AI infrastructure solutions. Their product suite includes: (1) Imaging products under the ISP family including Infinite ISP (open-source), CUDA ISP, HDR ISP, Polyphase Video Scaler, and LumaIQ for image signal processing; (2) Cloud V - a cloud-based RISC-V development and testing platform; (3) RISC-V IP cores including IOPMP and Debug & N-Trace IPs; and (4) AI Infrastructure software including Baltoro and QuantX for optimizing AI/ML workloads on custom silicon. The company also provides services in RISC-V verification/design, Image Signal Processing, compilers/kernels, and formal verification to accelerate time-to-market for fabless SoC firms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Infinite ISP An open-source contribution to Image Signal Processing innovation — a rich repository of ISP algorithms spanning Python to C to RTL to FPGA to ASIC design, available on GitHub. Targets camera engineering teams and imaging companies seeking proven ISP building blocks.
• CUDA ISP Image Signal Processor optimized for CUDA-based GPU architectures. Aimed at camera and imaging developers targeting GPU-accelerated image pipelines.
• Polyphase Video Scaler Video Scaler IP for high-quality video scaling operations. Aimed at SoC and video system designers needing hardware video scaling blocks.
• HDR ISP High Dynamic Range Image Signal Processor for enhanced image quality in challenging lighting conditions. Targets imaging and camera SoC developers.
• LumaIQ Advanced imaging product for enhanced luminance processing and image quality optimization. Targets imaging engineers and camera SoC integrators.
• Cloud-V Vendor-agnostic RISC-V cloud computing platform providing access to diverse physical and emulated RISC-V compute instances, with a CI web server and binary artifactory for RISC-V software. Aimed at RISC-V software developers and semiconductor engineering teams.
• RISC-V IOPMP IP RISC-V Input/Output Physical Memory Protection IP for securing memory access in RISC-V systems. Licensable to RISC-V SoC designers and fabless semiconductor companies.
• RISC-V Debug & N-Trace IP Debug and N-Trace IP for RISC-V processor debugging and tracing capabilities. Licensable to RISC-V SoC designers and chip developers.
• Baltoro AI infrastructure software for optimizing AI workloads on custom and standard hardware using MLIR and LLVM-based compiler solutions. Targets AI/ML hardware companies developing custom silicon.
• QuantX In-house hardware-aware quantization platform that generates CPU-friendly codebook-based quantization techniques (Q4X) for efficient LLM inference on RISC-V vector CPUs. Targets AI hardware developers and GenAI deployment teams.
• RISC-V Verification and Design Services Specialized RISC-V verification and design services including functional and code coverage, test plan development, regression, automation, ARM-to-RISC-V migration, and compiler/LLVM integration. Sold to fabless SoC firms.
• Image Signal Processing Services ISP design, development, and testing services including medical imaging applications, AI and computational photography integration, and rigorous algorithm quality assurance. Targets imaging and medical device companies.
• Compilers and Kernels Services ML compiler development using MLIR and LLVM for RISC-V and custom silicon, hardware-specific kernel optimization, end-to-end compiler tuning with custom ops, builtins, performance passes, and intrinsics development for low-latency execution on custom SIMD/vector designs.
• Formal Verification Services Mathematical hardware assurance using formal verification to exhaustively prove absence of bugs in complex design blocks including NoC, Cache Coherence Managers, and high-performance RISC-V Vector and Floating Point Units. Includes proprietary AXI4 VIP ensuring 100% AMBA AXI4 specification compliance.

Quantifiable outcome

• 25 critical design bugs caught that formal verification found that simulation missed
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• OpenHW FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner10xEngineers has been an active contributor to OpenHW Foundation since 2021, playing a key role in advancing the functionality, verification, and compliance of CVA6 and CV-Wally. Contributions span architectural and microarchitectural verification, RISC-V extensions including bit manipulation, Zce, Zicond, and scalar cryptography, and verification infrastructure like core-v-verif and cvw-arch-verif.
• RISC-V InternationalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCloud-V has been recognized as the first official RISC-V Lab Partner by RISC-V International. This partnership provides free RISC-V compute resources for open-source communities, standardized CI testing for RISC-V projects, and a platform for collaboration and innovation in the RISC-V space.
• Harvey Mudd CollegeminorStrategic or Co-development Partner10xEngineers sponsored a Global Clinic Project (2024-25) to develop open-source architectural functional coverage for RISC-V microprocessors, involving students and faculty at Harvey Mudd College in California and UET and Habib University in Pakistan. Team members mentored students and contributed critical technical components.
• Woodpecker TechnologiesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerEngaged with 10xEngineers to develop an LLVM-based tool that enhances the post-silicon validation process by leveraging two decades of Stanford research on Quick Error Detection (QED) algorithms. The tool significantly reduced Error Detection Latency and improved error coverage of post-silicon tests.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• SiFive: Leading commercial provider of RISC-V processor IP cores and SoC design tools. Competes with 10xEngineers for RISC-V design wins, though SiFive focuses on CPU cores while 10xEngineers focuses on verification, design services, and uncore IPs.
• Andes Technology: Established RISC-V IP core vendor and AndeSight toolchain provider. Comparable as a RISC-V IP and ecosystem company, with similar positioning around RISC-V vector and AI workloads but a much larger installed base.
• Antmicro: RISC-V design services and open-source hardware/software firm offering verification, tooling, and custom SoC development. Highly comparable as a boutique RISC-V design services player with open-source contributions.
• Imagination Technologies: IP core vendor with strong heritage in GPU and ISP IP. Directly comparable in the ISP IP business, where 10xEngineers has built a competing product family, though at a much smaller scale.
• Think Silicon: Low-power GPU and ISP IP vendor targeting embedded and edge AI applications. Direct competitor in the ISP IP market, particularly for mobile, wearable, and IoT-class designs.
• Ashling Microsystems: Provider of debug and trace tools, including RISC-V debug IP. Directly comparable in the RISC-V Debug & N-Trace IP product category where 10xEngineers is a head-to-head competitor.

Broad incumbents

• Synopsys: Largest EDA and IP vendor, offering verification IP, design services, and a full RISC-V IP portfolio. Competes with 10xEngineers' formal verification, VIP, and design services as part of a much broader portfolio.
• Cadence Design Systems: Major EDA and IP vendor with formal verification tools, VIP, and growing RISC-V IP offerings. Competes across 10xEngineers' verification and IP core lines as part of a comprehensive EDA platform.
• VeriSilicon: IP licensing and chip design services platform with broad semiconductor IP catalog including ISP, GPU, and AI processor IP. Comparable as a one-stop IP and design services provider, but at much larger scale.

Emerging players

• Bluespec: RISC-V tools and IP company offering high-level synthesis, cores, and verification infrastructure. Comparable as a niche RISC-V tooling vendor with overlapping customer base in fabless SoC firms.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@10xengineers
• Facebookfacebook.com/p/10x-Engineers-Technologies-100071445710289
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/10x-engineers

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about 10xEngineers