# AI chip startup Etched raises $300 million at $10.3 billion valuation

_Friday, July 24, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT · Capital · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![AI chip startup Etched raises $300 million at $10.3 billion valuation — Primary](https://d15shllkswkct0.cloudfront.net/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2026/07/Etched.png)

AI chip startup Etched Inc. announced Friday it has raised $300 million in a Series C funding round that values the company at $10.3 billion, more than double its valuation in December. The round was led by Sequoia with participation from SK Hynix Inc., Andreessen Horowitz, Jane Street and Diffusion, the company said.

Etched develops a chip optimized solely for artificial intelligence inference rather than both training and inference workloads. The company said optimizing for inference enabled a more efficient design that avoids thermal bottlenecks limiting traditional graphics card clock frequencies. Etched plans to ship the processor as part of an appliance with custom cooling components and interconnects.

The startup said its chip uses a mechanism called LVI to minimize voltage and temperature, allowing higher clock frequencies. A second technology called Cluster Scale Memory enables accelerators in a rack to share memory, making prompt processing more efficient. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Gavin Uberti said the funding reflects growing industry conviction that serving frontier AI sustainably requires rebuilding the hardware stack from first principles.

Etched plans to start shipping its first racks this summer. The company is building a surface mount technology production line in an 80,000 square-foot facility near its San Jose headquarters to expedite appliance assembly.

## Sources

- [SiliconANGLE](https://siliconangle.com/2026/07/23/ai-chip-startup-etched-doubles-valuation-10-3b-new-300m-round/)

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