AI chip startup SambaNova valued at $11 billion in $1 billion funding round
Silicon Valley AI computing startup SambaNova’s DataScale system is shown at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, in Lemont, Illinois, U.S., November 10, 2022. Argonne National Laboratory/Handout via REUTERS
July 8 : AI chip startup SambaNova said on Wednesday it has raised $1 billion in a late-stage funding round led by General Atlantic at an $11 billion post-money valuation.
The company makes custom chips, hardware systems and cloud services tailored for inference - the process by which models respond to user queries.
Here are some details:
• The Series F round included significant investment from Seligman Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates and Capital Group.
• New and existing investors include A&E Investment, Assam Ventures, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Intel Capital and the Qatar Investment Authority.
• SambaNova said it will use the proceeds to expand capacity, scale deployments worldwide and continue investing across chips, systems, software and full-stack AI infrastructure for customers.
• The company also said JPMorgan Chase has selected it as an inference infrastructure partner, deploying its SN40 and SN50 systems for AI inference.
• In February, SambaNova raised $350 million to fund the expansion of its SN50 AI chip, and struck a partnership with Intel to deliver cheap inference solutions for AI-native companies.
• The partnership involved a $35 million Intel investment in SambaNova, which received U.S. antitrust clearance in May after acquisition talks between the companies stalled.
• In April, a Reuters review of corporate records showed Intel had planned to invest another $15 million in SambaNova, which would increase Intel's ownership of SambaNova to 9 per cent.
• SambaNova did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the current size of Intel's stake and its contribution to the Series F round.
• In April 2021, the company raised $676 million in a funding round led by SoftBank Group's Vision Fund 2, valuing the company at more than $5 billion.
