SambaNova, the AI Chip Innovator, Secures $1 Billion Funding, Reaching $11 Billion Valuation Just Five Months Post Previous Major Round
SambaNova Systems, a company specializing in AI chips, has successfully secured $1 billion in funding, raising its valuation to $11 billion. This investment round, part of the Series F closing, was led by General Atlantic, with additional investors expected to participate soon.
Rodrigo Liang, CEO and co-founder of SambaNova, shared with TechCrunch that more investors are anticipated to join in the coming weeks, and the second closing of the round is likely to be completed shortly.
This funding round comes about five months after the Palo Alto-based startup introduced its SN50 chip and completed a $350 million Series E round in February. Additionally, there were talks of an acquisition deal with Intel, which was reported to value SambaNova at approximately $1.6 billion.
When asked if the closure of its Series E and F rounds indicated a commitment to remaining independent, Liang remained ambiguous. He stated that the company often receives interest from outside, indicating an openness to potential exits in the rapidly changing AI landscape. However, he emphasized that the company is likely on a path toward going public as it continues to gain traction and expand.
SambaNova’s relationship with Intel, which has been an investor since its Series C and is now part of the latest funding round, has strengthened further. Recently, the startup announced a multi-year collaboration with Intel to enhance AI inference development using Intel’s Xeon chip. Liang noted that this partnership allows the company to merge Intel’s scale with its own innovative technology.
In conjunction with the new funding, SambaNova has been chosen by JPMorgan Chase as a partner for inference infrastructure. Their SN40L and SN50 systems will facilitate secure, on-premises AI inference solutions for the bank.
Liang remarked that having JPMorgan Chase select SambaNova as their inference solution is a significant milestone, signaling to the banking sector the importance of not relying solely on cloud services. He pointed out that banks are now transitioning towards heterogeneous infrastructures.
Liang mentioned that the decision made by a reputable institution like JPMorgan signifies a broader market trend. According to him, major banks are now investing in their own secure infrastructures for running sensitive AI models, a trend that he believes will extend beyond the banking sector. He suggested that many enterprises and government bodies are just beginning their AI ventures, leaving substantial revenue potential yet to be tapped.
SambaNova rolled out its SN40L system in September 2023, with cloud availability starting in November. The next iteration, the SN50, which was revealed in February 2026, is set to start shipping to customers in the latter half of 2026, with SoftBank designated as the inaugural deployment partner.
Liang asserted SambaNova’s advantage as a provider of “premium inference,” optimizing performance for the most extensive models available. Current frontier models feature trillions of parameters, and SambaNova is engineered specifically to manage these at scale, accommodating multi-trillion-parameter models within a single rack to enhance their operational speed.
SambaNova serves three primary customer segments: sovereign clouds, supported by governmental funding for local partners; neoclouds; and enterprises developing for internal purposes. Besides JPMorgan, their clientele includes notable firms like Saudi Aramco, Intel, and several companies from Japan.
The funds raised will be utilized to grow the business and reinforce the supply chain in light of what Liang described as an extraordinary surge in demand. He highlighted the importance of securing the supply chain for fulfilling orders and procuring the necessary materials in the forthcoming year.
Additional investors involved in this funding round include Seligman Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates, and Capital Group, along with both new and existing investors like A&E Investment, Assam Ventures, Battery Ventures, Cambium Capital, BlackRock, Kabila Capital, QFO Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, Vista Equity Partners, and Volantis.
