Big Sur Ventures participates in Axiomatic AI’s $18 million funding round

Axiomatic AI, the company building the verification standard for engineering-focused artificial intelligence, today announced an $18 million seed round, bringing total funding to $25 million. The company integrates cutting-edge AI models with mathematical and physics-based verification to deliver interpretable, provable reasoning for critical and emerging technologies.

As engineering complexity accelerates across semiconductors, photonics, and advanced manufacturing, Axiomatic AI is establishing the intelligent infrastructure layer required for AI to operate reliably within physical laws.

The round was led by Engine Ventures, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Big Sur Ventures, Global Vision Capital, Propagator Ventures, and Liquid 2. The funds will support enterprise deployments and deeper integration of Axiomatic’s verification platform into complex scientific and engineering workflows.

Core Technology: Axiomatic Intelligence™

Axiomatic’s core technology, Axiomatic Intelligence™, is purpose-built for engineering and science. It combines frontier AI models with mathematical and physics-based verification and domain-specific knowledge that grows in value with use. Unlike conventional AI systems, which can generate plausible outputs but cannot verify them against physical laws, validate assumptions, or quantify uncertainty, Axiomatic Intelligence delivers interpretable, physics-grounded reasoning with formal auditability. This enables automation and orchestration of complex engineering workflows while verifying correctness and consistency at multiple levels: fundamental physical principles, design rules, and logical reasoning.

Challenges with Conventional AI

Current AI can suggest designs, but it cannot prove they obey physics. Even the most advanced generative models require extensive human oversight in high-stakes scientific and engineering workflows, limiting productivity and increasing systemic risk. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) identifies hallucinations and “cheating” as major challenges for safely deploying large language models (LLMs). Engineers and scientists need systems that reflect physical reality and provide formal guarantees. Manual verification reduces productivity and increases risk, especially in industries facing talent shortages. In the semiconductor industry alone, the U.S. will need roughly 160,000 new engineering roles by 2032.

Vision and Mission

“We are defining the standard that science and engineering AI must meet,” said Jake Taylor, CEO of Axiomatic AI. “As demand for hardware underpinning our economy accelerates, machine learning systems must move from assistance to accountable collaboration. AI that cannot justify its reasoning at the engineering level cannot scale into high-stakes technical domains. Our focus is on shifting technical intelligence toward verifiable outcomes connected to physical reality.”

Axiomatic’s early access program includes several Fortune 100 and 500 companies, semiconductor equipment manufacturers, foundries, fabless design organizations, photonics technology companies, and top-tier non-profit research institutions. Its long-term goal is to become the authoritative workflow platform for science and engineering in high-stakes domains. As more solvers, constraints, and enterprise workflows are integrated, the platform compounds in value and establishes verification and orchestration as baseline requirements for engineering AI.

Founders and Team

Axiomatic AI was founded by globally recognized experts in physics, photonics, and electrical engineering:

Dirk Englund – MIT Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Frank Koppens – Group Leader and Professor at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO).
Joyce Poon – University of Toronto Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Marin Soljačić – MIT Professor of Physics and MacArthur Fellow.

CEO Jake Taylor previously served as Assistant Director for Quantum Information Science at the White House and Senior Advisor for Critical and Emerging Technologies at NIST.

“When we started Axiomatic AI, our mission was to build a different kind of system—one rooted in math, deductive reasoning, and interpretability, empowering engineers and scientists rather than replacing them with machines,” said Dirk Englund.