AI chips are back in the spotlight: Etched raises $300M at a $10.3B valuation

A note from the AI chips and hardware space.

Etched, a startup building AI chips and systems, has closed a $300 million Series C at a $10.3 billion valuation.

The round was led by Sequoia, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, SK Hynix, Jane Street and Diffusion Capital.

The company has already unveiled its own chips, is testing early systems with customers, and says it has $1 billion in orders.

What is striking is that the project was long seen as too ambitious, yet the team kept building and proving its approach in practice.

Why it matters: AI infrastructure is increasingly shifting toward specialized solutions, where speed and compute cost are becoming decisive.

Do you think such solutions can reshape the data center market?

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