Kartik Hegde

New Signett — open-source infrastructure for reliable WebMCP interfaces →

I like building things, especially when the problem demands technical depth. Depending on the problem, that has meant working as an engineer, conducting research, or starting a company.

In 2023, I co-founded ChipStack to build AI agents for chip design and verification. ChipStack was acquired by Cadence in 2025, where I continue that work. My background spans computer architecture and machine learning. I’m now particularly interested in robotics, physical AI, and systems that connect models to machines and the physical world.

Research → Background ↓ Contact → First Principles ↗

Background

I completed my PhD in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, advised by Christopher W. Fletcher. My research focused on sparse computation, efficient accelerators, and hardware–software co-design. I received a 2019 Facebook PhD Fellowship.

Before co-founding ChipStack, I worked in processor design and research at Arm, NVIDIA Research, Facebook AI Research, and Facebook Reality Labs. I received my bachelor’s degree from NITK Surathkal.

  1. 2025–now

    CadenceAgentic AI for chip design.

  2. 2023–2025

    ChipStackCo-founder and CEO; built AI agents for chip design and verification. Acquired by Cadence.

  3. 2017–2022

    University of IllinoisPh.D. in Computer Science; research at the intersection of machine learning and computer architecture.

  4. 2021

    NVIDIA ResearchEfficient inference with sparse tensor algebra on GPUs.

  5. 2019–2020

    Facebook AI Research and Reality LabsRecommendation systems and specialized hardware.

  6. 2015–2019

    ArmChip design and verification; efficient low-power inference work that later became Arm’s NPU.