2025 Outlook with Veerbhan Kheterpal of Quadric

Quadric Inc. is the leading licensor of general-purpose neural processor IP (GPNPU) that runs both machine learning inference workloads and classic DSP and control algorithms.  Quadric’s unified hardware and software architecture is optimized for on-device ML inference. Veerbhan Kheterpal is the CEO and one of the co-founders of Quadric.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.

Quadric is a startup processor IP licensing company delivering a unique general-purpose, programmable neural processor (GPNPU) IP solution. In a marketplace with more than a dozen machine learning “accelerators,” ours is the only NPU solution that is fully C++ programmable. This means that it can run any and every AI/ML graph without the need for any fallback to a host CPU or DSP.  I am one of the three co-founders of the company, which we started back in late 2017.

What was the most exciting high point of 2024 for your company?

2024 was a year of tremendous momentum building for Quadric.  We introduced and began customer deliveries of the 2^nd generation of our Chimera GPNPU processor, which now scales to over 800 TOPs.  We also dramatically expanded the size of our model zoo (available in our online DevStudio at our quadric.io website) from only 20 models at the start of the year to over 200 by the close of 2024 thanks to the rapid maturation of our compiler stack.  And that maturation of the technology was accompanied by a growing customer base, that included a public announcement by Denso Corp of Japan that they are basing their future ADAS systems on our GPNPU processors.

What was the biggest challenge your company faced in 2024?

2024 witnessed the beginning of the thinning of the herd of rival NPU architectures in the marketplace.  Far too many IP startups and large IP players all launched AI/ML accelerator efforts from 2020 through 2023 – too many for the market to support them all.   Quadric’s goal in 2024 was to gain the necessary traction in the market to become one of the survivors of the shakeout, and to thrive amid that big shakeout.

Indeed, we did thrive!  We grew the team. We grew the customer base.  We greatly expanded the scope of the product.  We grew revenues by over 600%. And we just kicked off 2025 by forming a Japanese K.K. subsidiary and opening a physical office in Japan – so I think we met the challenge of 2024 head-on and succeeded!

How is your company’s work addressing this biggest challenge?

The challenge of surviving the inevitable thinning of the herd was really a question of highlighting and enhancing the thing that makes Quadric unique among AI/ML solutions: the Quadric Chimera GPNPU is 100% programmable, capable of running any and all ML workloads.  In detailed evaluation after detailed evaluation, we shined by rapidly porting dozens of new, leading-edge models to the platform – many of which compiled straight out of the box with no manual intervention.  The resulting massive increase in the size of the known-working model zoo throughout 2024 cemented in customers’ minds that the promise of full programmability with high performance was a reality, not just a promise.

What do you think the biggest growth area for 2025 will be, and why?

Every year we marvel at how fast AI models changed the previous year.  And every year the industry buckles up for a wild ride to see how much change hits in the coming year.  2025 is no different – in fact, 2025 has already seen huge changes.  DeepSeek so disrupted the conventional wisdom that stock markets quaked, politicians pontificated, and technologists paused to wonder.  And that was only within the first 4 weeks of the year!

These changes won’t slow down.  Look at the automotive market, for instance.  One year ago none of the leading OEMs and Tier 1s had vision-language models (VLMs) on their Must Have list.  VLMs at the time were barely registering in academia.  Now, VLMs are fast becoming requirements.

How is your company’s work addressing this growth?

Quadric welcomes rapid change in AI models.  Quadric processors can run every ML operator, every ML graph.  The more change the better for our business!   Quadric is continuously adding ports of new algorithms to our processors. Today we support all the major modalities of ML inference, including a variety of leading-edge transformers.  Adding a demonstration of a new ML model is a pure software effort for us, and we are focused in 2025 on widening the array of models further with each periodic software release.

What conferences did you attend in 2024 and how was the traffic?

In 2024 we attended quite a few smaller, focused technical conferences: Embedded Vision Summit, IPSoC, ACC, Innovex (part of Computex), Design Solution Forum, EdgeTech, and we held two of our own private seminars.   Those tailored conferences were robustly attended and the big mega shows – such as CES – also did well.

Will you attend conferences in 2024? Same or more?

Quadric will be expanding our outreach marketing programs in 2025 commensurate with our business growth.  Look for us to be at more events and more prominent sponsors of those venues that bring together the chip and systems architects that make programmable processor IP decisions.

How do customers engage with your company?

The first step is easy: visit our online DevStudio at www.quadric.io.  We have hundreds of benchmark performance figures – and full source code of all those benchmarks – right on the website in Studio.  And our worldwide sales and applications team stands ready to follow-up with training and support to help you decide if Quadric’ Chimera GPNPU processor is right for your next SoC design.

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