Pathkey.AI to acquire AI semiconductor design verification platform

Australian technology company Pathkey.AI has entered into a binding share purchase agreement to acquire Singaporean-based Chipforge, an AI-powered chip design platform for semiconductor engineering.

Pathkey’s principal activity is the development and commercialisation of AI technology applied to data-intensive industries.

Its core platform, TrialKey, is a proprietary predictive AI engine designed to transform unstructured datasets into structured, model-ready inputs for probabilistic forecasting and decision optimisation.

To date, this technology has been applied primarily to clinical trial design and optimisation.

Chipforge applies AI agents across the full design workflow. Engineers describe what they want the chip to do, through specifications, diagrams or functional requirements, and the platform generates the underlying hardware design, builds the tests needed to verify it, and progresses the design through synthesis and implementation on FPGA hardware.

The platform's roadmap extends this same workflow toward full Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) development. Once a customer has a verified hardware design, it can be prototyped on programmable hardware, licensed as reusable intellectual property, or progressed toward full chip manufacture.

Chipforge is positioned to serve this need across defence, aerospace, critical infrastructure, universities and research institutions, as well as companies developing custom chips for AI, edge computing and embedded systems. 

Pathkey considers that the acquisition presents significant synergies through complementing its existing AI capabilities, including that know-how developed in connection with TrialKey can be directly applied to the continued development of the Chipforge platform, and vice versa.

TrialKey’s methodology for ingesting unstructured information and organising it into structured inputs also translates naturally to managing chip design changes and verification results within a controlled workflow, according to the company.

The acquisition also extends Pathkey's AI activities from clinical development into chip design and engineering workflows, applying similar AI-assisted data and decision frameworks to another critical industry.

"By adding this complementary AI chip‑design technology to our technology stack, we are materially strengthening our position as a leader in AI," said Pathkey chair Shannon Robinson.

"According to a recent article by McKinsey & Company, the global semiconductor market is forecast to reach around US$1 trillion by 2030, driven by AI, data‑centre expansion, edge computing, defence and next‑generation compute workloads.

"Against that backdrop, owning chip design and verification IP is highly strategic. This transaction accelerates our roadmap, deepens our technical moat, and positions us to capture a far greater share of value as semiconductor spending scales globally.”

The Company’s TrialKey platform will continue to be developed and operated from Australia, while the Chipforge business will continue to be operated from Singapore.

The company currently expects the acquisition to complete prior to the end of FY26.