SambaNova Systems Raises $1 Billion in Series F Round, Valuation Hits $11 Billion
AI chip company SambaNova Systems has raised $1 billion in an initial closing of its Series F round at an $11 billion valuation, led by General Atlantic. More investors are expected to join soon.
Anticipated New Investors and Next Steps
“A few more investors will be joining in the next few weeks and the second closing will likely be completed,” Rodrigo Liang, CEO and co-founder of SambaNova, told TechCrunch.
Recent Developments and Strategic Decisions
The latest round comes about five months after the Palo Alto, California-based startup unveiled the SN50 chip, along with a $350 million Series E chip in February. According to a December Bloomberg News report, SambaNova was also in acquisition talks with Intel, a deal worth about $1.6 billion.
When asked whether the completion of the Series E and F rounds meant SambaNova, which was founded in 2017, had decided to remain independent, Liang was noncommittal. He said the company continues to generate interest. “We are always spoken to.” The door is open for such an exit from this dynamic AI market, the CEO said, but momentum and growth would most likely lead the company to “go public at some point.”
Strengthening Ties with Intel
SambaNova’s ties to Intel, a backer since Series C and a participant in this latest round, have deepened. Five months ago, the nine-year-old startup announced a multi-year partnership with Intel to support the development of AI inference based on Intel’s Xeon chip. The two are now developing products together and bringing them to market together. “This gives us a great relationship with them that allows us to leverage Intel’s scale with the technology we have,” Liang said.
Partnership with JPMorganChase
In addition to the new funding, SambaNova said it has been selected by JPMorganChase as an “inference infrastructure partner,” with its SN40L and SN50 systems designed to enable secure, local AI inference in the bank.
“JPMorgan Chase’s decision to use SambaNova for their inference solution is a big deal,” Liang told TechCrunch. “It’s a message to the banking industry that it’s time to stop relying entirely on cloud services. These banks want to be diverse [infrastructure].”
Implications for the Broader Market
Liang said JPMorgan’s win was a signal to the broader market. Banks “of the caliber of JP Morgan” are now building their own private, secure infrastructure to draw conclusions about their most sensitive models, he said, a move he expects to resonate beyond banking. Companies and governments are “just beginning their AI journey,” Liang continued, with most of the growth so far concentrated in the tech industry’s model builders and pioneering labs, leaving what he called “an enormous amount of revenue” on the table.
Product Development and Customer Base
SambaNova launched its SN40L in September 2023, available in the cloud and on-premises from November 2023. The next-generation SN50, unveiled in February 2026, is expected to ship to customers in the second half of 2026, with SoftBank as its first delivery partner, Liang said.
Liang called SambaNova’s lead “premium inference” when it comes to running the largest models and running them quickly. Today’s boundary models span trillions of parameters, and he said SambaNova was specifically designed to handle those parameters at this scale. The company consolidates models with trillions of parameters into a single rack, allowing them to run quickly.
Customer Categories and Future Plans
SambaNova sees three types of customers. The first is sovereign clouds, where governments fund local partners to build private clouds, a push in which Liang expects SambaNova to play a central role. The second is Neoclouds. The third are companies that build for their own use. In addition to JPMorgan, Saudi Aramco, Intel and other Japanese companies are also named as customers.
SambaNova will use the proceeds to grow the business and shore up its supply chain against what Liang called an incredible surge in demand. “We are using this capital to secure the supply chain,” he said, describing it as essential to fulfilling orders and purchasing the materials the company needs to deliver over the next 12 months.
Participating Investors
Other investors participating in the round include Seligman Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates and Capital Group. New and existing investors also joined, including A&E Investment, Assam Ventures, Battery Ventures, Cambium Capital, BlackRock, Kabila Capital, QFO Capital, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Vista Equity Partners and Volantis.
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