Etched Raises $300 Million Series C at $10.3 Billion Valuation for AI Inference Chips

Etched Secures $300 Million in Series C Funding

San Jose-based AI chip startup Etched has raised $300 million in Series C funding at a $10.3 billion valuation, marking what the company says is the largest Sequoia Capital-led Series C to date.

The round was led by Sequoia Capital, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Jane Street, Diffusion, SK Hynix, and existing investors Peter Thiel and Jump Trading.

The latest investment brings Etched's total funding to more than $1.1 billion since its founding in 2022.

Founded by Gavin Uberti (CEO), Chris Zhu, and Rob Wachen, Etched develops specialized AI inference hardware designed to improve performance and efficiency for large-scale AI workloads.

Building Specialized AI Inference Infrastructure

Unlike general-purpose GPUs, Etched focuses on dedicated inference hardware optimized for serving AI models.

Its rack-scale inference clusters support multiple AI architectures, including Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) models, DeepSeek, Qwen, and Mamba, enabling customers to deploy different model families on a single infrastructure platform.

The company also highlighted proprietary technologies including Low Voltage Inference, designed to improve compute efficiency, and Cluster Scale Memory, which shares SRAM and HBM resources across clusters to optimize AI inference workloads.

Expanding Manufacturing and Operations

The newly raised capital will fund the construction of an 80,000-square-foot prototyping facility in Milpitas, California, establish an in-house surface-mount technology (SMT) production line, and support continued manufacturing alongside its factory in Taiwan.

According to the company, Etched has grown to approximately 400 employees, up from 35 employees in 2024, as it scales production of its AI inference systems.