SambaNova Raises $1B at $11B Valuation in Nvidia Rival Push
Cover image from techcrunch.com, which was analyzed for this article
The AI chip startup raised $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation, drawing investor interest as an Nvidia alternative during the current boom.
PoliticalOS
Wednesday, July 8, 2026 — Tech
Capital is flowing rapidly to AI inference specialists that can deliver on-premises deployments for regulated industries. SambaNova’s valuation has more than doubled in five months, yet questions remain about its ability to scale production and convert named design wins into sustained revenue.
What outlets missed
Reuters alone documented Intel’s planned $15 million follow-on investment and the May antitrust clearance of its earlier stake. TechCrunch specified that the round is a first close with additional investors expected within weeks. None of the outlets independently verified SambaNova’s claimed ability to fit multi-trillion-parameter models on a single rack or quantified the size of its existing customer deployments beyond named references to JPMorgan, Saudi Aramco and Intel.
Enterprise demand for secure, on-premises AI inference is drawing fresh capital into chip startups seeking to reduce reliance on Nvidia. SambaNova Systems announced a $1 billion Series F first close at an $11 billion post-money valuation on July 8, led by General Atlantic with participation from Seligman Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates, Capital Group, BlackRock-managed funds, Qatar Investment Authority and others.
The round follows a $350 million Series E completed in February that included a $35 million Intel investment and a multi-year partnership to co-develop inference solutions on Intel Xeon processors. Reuters reported that Intel had planned an additional $15 million stake that would have raised its ownership to 9 percent; SambaNova did not confirm its current Intel holding. Proceeds will expand manufacturing capacity, secure supply chain components and accelerate global deployments of the SN40L and SN50 systems.
JPMorgan Chase selected SambaNova to run on-premises inference workloads behind its own firewalls, citing data-control requirements that cloud providers cannot meet. CEO Rodrigo Liang told multiple outlets the company is evaluating a 2027 U.S. IPO while remaining open to strategic interest. The SN50 chip, unveiled in February, is scheduled to ship in the second half of 2026, with SoftBank as an early deployment partner.
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