MatX Raises $500 Million in Series B Funding
Chip startup MatX, founded by two former Google hardware engineers, has successfully raised a staggering $500 million in a Series B funding round. The funding round was led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness, an investment fund formed by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner. This announcement was made public by the startup’s founder and CEO, Reiner Pope, via a LinkedIn post on Tuesday.
MatX’s Ambitious Goal
The primary objective of MatX is to develop processors that are ten times more efficient at training large language models (LLMs) and delivering results compared to Nvidia’s Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). By targeting a significant improvement in performance, MatX aims to revolutionize the world of AI chips and machine learning.
Participating Investors
The funding round saw participation from several reputable investors. Among them were Patrick Collison and John Collison, co-founders of Marvell Technology. Other notable participants include NFDG, Spark Capital, and Stripe.
MatX’s Market Position
While the latest valuation of MatX has not been officially disclosed, it’s worth noting that its closest competitor, Etched, secured a $500 million seed round at a reported valuation of $5 billion, as per Bloomberg’s report last month. MatX’s recent funding round follows its Series A round, which raised about $100 million more than a year ago, valuing the startup at over $300 million.
MatX’s Founding and Future Plans
Before launching MatX in 2023, CEO Reiner Pope spearheaded AI software development for Google’s proprietary AI chips, known as Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). Mike Gunter, MatX’s co-founder, served as a lead designer of TPU hardware at Google before joining MatX. The new funding will be instrumental in enabling MatX to manufacture its chips with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), with plans to start shipping them in 2027.
Techcrunch Event
In other news, TechCrunch is expected to host an event in Boston, Massachusetts on June 9, 2026. The event will likely offer further insight into the developments and trends in the world of technology and startups.
For more details, check out the original report here.
