Exclusive: Positron Raises $230m Series B To Take On Nvidia’s Ai Chips

Semiconductor startup Positron has secured $230 cardinal successful Series B funding, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The semiconductor startup plans to usage nan superior to velocity up deployment of its high-speed representation chips, a captious constituent for nan chips utilized for AI workloads, sources acquainted pinch nan matter told TechCrunch. 

Investors successful nan information see Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), nan country’s sovereign wealthiness fund, which has been progressively focused connected building retired AI infrastructure, nan sources said.

The Reno-based startup’s Series B comes arsenic hyperscalers and AI firms push to trim their reliance connected longstanding leader Nvidia. These firms see OpenAI, which, contempt being 1 of Nvidia’s largest and astir important customers, is reportedly unsatisfied pinch immoderate of nan firm’s latest AI chips and has been seeking alternatives since past year. 

Meanwhile, Qatar, done QIA, has been accelerating a broader push into alleged “sovereign” AI infrastructure – a privilege many times underscored astatine Web Summit Qatar successful Doha this week. Several sources told TechCrunch nan state views compute capacity arsenic captious to staying competitory connected nan world economical stage, and is positioning itself arsenic a starring AI services hub successful nan Middle East, fueling liking successful startups for illustration Positron.

The strategy is already taking style done awesome commitments, including a $20 cardinal AI infrastructure joint task pinch Brookfield Asset Management that was announced successful September.

Positron’s fundraise brings nan three-year-old startup’s full superior raised to conscionable complete $300 million. The startup antecedently raised $75 cardinal past twelvemonth from investors including Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, DFJ Growth, Flume Ventures and Resilience Reserve. 

The institution claims its first-generation spot Atlas, manufactured successful Arizona, tin lucifer nan capacity of Nvidia’s H100 GPUs for little than a 3rd of nan power. Positron is focused connected conclusion – computing needed to tally AI models for real-world applications – alternatively than training ample connection models, positioning nan institution arsenic request surges for conclusion hardware arsenic businesses progressively displacement attraction from building ample models to deploying them astatine scale.

Sources show TechCrunch that beyond its representation capabilities, Positron’s chips besides execute powerfully successful high-frequency and video-processing workloads.

TechCrunch has reached retired to Positron for much information.