AI chip startup Etched defies skeptics, hits $10.3B valuation from big-name investors
TechCrunch AI Julie Bort ● Covered by 2 sources
Etched, an AI chip startup founded by Harvard dropouts, raised $300 million in Series C funding at a $10.3 billion valuation from investors including Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz. The company doubled its valuation in seven months and has booked $1 billion in orders after successfully manufacturing chips designed to accelerate AI model inference through specialized prefill and decode components. The funding validates Etched's approach to building transformer-optimized chips as a viable alternative to general-purpose AI processors, moving the company closer to mass production and wider market deployment.
Why it matters
Etched, founded by three Harvard dropouts, has created new chips and memory components that speed up inference on any AI model -- no GPUs required, it says.
