On February 19, 2026, Taalas announced that it raised $169 million and developed a chip capable of using artificial intelligence applications faster and more cost effectively than traditional approaches.

Taalas is an artificial intelligence chip startup based in Toronto.

Investors include Quiet Capital, Fidelity, and venture capitalist Pierre Lamond.

Taalas prints portions of AI models onto chips and pairs them with high-speed SRAM memory to enhance speed, said CEO Ljubisa Bajic.

It assembles a nearly complete chip and completes final customization in about two months using TSMC’s process, compared with roughly six months for chips from companies like Nvidia.

The startup plans to run less complex models now and develop processors for advanced models such as GPT-5.2 by the end of 2026.

Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP advised Taalas with a team consisting of Gary Marshall, Mihnea Porime and Sydney van Vliet (Emerging and High Growth Companies).