NVIDIA Rival SambaNova Lands $1 Bn, JPMorgan Chase Deal to Power AI Inference

US-based AI chip startup SambaNova has raised $1 billion in a Series F funding round at an $11 billion valuation, as the company looks to capitalise on growing enterprise demand for AI inference infrastructure. 

The company will use the capital to expand its AI infrastructure platform and accelerate enterprise AI deployments globally as demand for inference computing continues to grow.

The round, led by General Atlantic, saw significant participation from Seligman Ventures, T Rowe Price Associates and Capital Group. Existing and new investors also include funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Intel Capital, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Battery Ventures, Atlantic Bridge, Walden International, Redline Capital, Temasek, GIC, GV, MSD Capital, WRVI Capital, SK Telecom, and Vista Equity Partners. 

Founded in 2017 by Rodrigo Liang, Kunle Olukotun, and Christopher Ré, SambaNova develops proprietary Reconfigurable Dataflow Units (RDUs) alongside a full-stack AI platform designed specifically for inference, the process of running trained AI models in production. The company says its architecture delivers higher performance and energy efficiency than conventional GPU-based systems for enterprise AI workloads. 

It counts Intel and Saudi Aramco among its clients that have deployed SambaNova’s RDUs for computing solutions.

"This financing marks a pivotal moment for SambaNova and validates our vision that inference is the defining workload of the AI era," said Rodrigo Liang, Co-founder and CEO of SambaNova, in a statement.

"As enterprises race to operationalise AI, they need infrastructure purpose-built for inference at scale. With General Atlantic's partnership and the continued support of our investors, we are well positioned to accelerate innovation and help customers deploy AI faster, more efficiently and at lower cost," Liang added. 

Earlier this year, SambaNova introduced its SN50 chip and disclosed a funding round of over $350 million in conjunction with a strategic partnership with Intel.

Martín Escobari, Co-President and Head of Global Growth Equity at General Atlantic, said the investment reflects the firm's confidence in the company's technology and market opportunity.

"SambaNova's differentiated platform is purpose-built for the rapidly growing inference market," he added. 

Alongside the funding announcement, SambaNova revealed that JPMorganChase has selected its RDUs for fast, on-premises AI inference. Meanwhile, SoftBank was the first deployment partner for its SN50 AI chip.