Exclusive: Positron raises $230M Series B to take on Nvidia’s AI chips

Exclusive: Positron raises $230M Series B to take on Nvidia’s AI chips

Semiconductor startup Positron has secured $230 million in Series B funding, TechCrunch has completely realized. The outfit plans to use the capital to speed up deployment of its high-speed reminiscence chips, a important part for the chips used for AI workloads, sources acquainted with the matter told TechCrunch. 

Investors in the round embody Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, which has been more and more centered on constructing out AI infrastructure, the sources said.

The Reno-based startup’s Series B comes as hyperscalers and AI companies push to scale back their reliance on longstanding chief Nvidia. These companies embody OpenAI, which, despite being one in all Nvidia’s largest and most important prospects, is reportedly unhappy with some of the agency’s latest AI chips and has been in search of options since last 12 months. 

Meanwhile, Qatar, via QIA, has been accelerating a broader push into so-called “sovereign” AI infrastructure – a precedence repeatedly underscored at Web Summit Qatar in Doha this week. Several sources told TechCrunch the nation views compute capability as important to staying competitive on the global financial stage, and is positioning itself as a number one AI companies hub in the Middle East, fueling curiosity in startups like Positron.

The strategy is already taking form via major commitments, including a $20 billion AI infrastructure three way partnership with Brookfield Asset Management that was announced in September.

Positron’s fundraise brings the three-year-old startup’s whole capital raised to just over $300 million. The startup beforehand raised $75 million last 12 months from traders including Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, DFJ Growth, Flume Ventures and Resilience Reserve. 

The company claims its first-generation chip, Atlas, manufactured in Arizona, can match the performance of Nvidia’s H100 GPUs for less than a 3rd of the energy. Positron is targeted on inference – computing wanted to run AI fashions for real-world functions – slightly than training large language fashions, positioning the company as demand surges for inference {hardware} as companies more and more shift focus from constructing large fashions to deploying them at scale.

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Sources inform TechCrunch that past its reminiscence capabilities, Positron’s chips also carry out strongly in high-frequency and video-processing workloads.

TechCrunch has reached out to Positron for more data.

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