Exclusive: Positron raises $230M Series B to take ...

Semiconductor startup Positron has secured $230 million in Collection B funding, TechCrunch has completely realized. The outfit plans to make use of the capital to hurry up deployment of its high-speed reminiscence chips, a crucial part for the chips used for AI workloads, sources aware of the matter advised TechCrunch. 

Traders within the spherical embrace Qatar Funding Authority (QIA), the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, which has been more and more targeted on constructing out AI infrastructure, the sources mentioned.

The Reno-based startup’s Collection B comes as hyperscalers and AI companies push to cut back their reliance on longstanding chief Nvidia. These companies embrace OpenAI, which, regardless of being one in every of Nvidia’s largest and most necessary clients, is reportedly unhappy with a number of the agency’s newest AI chips and has been looking for options since final yr. 

In the meantime, Qatar, via QIA, has been accelerating a broader push into so-called “sovereign” AI infrastructure – a precedence repeatedly underscored at Internet Summit Qatar in Doha this week. A number of sources advised TechCrunch the nation views compute capability as crucial to staying aggressive on the worldwide financial stage, and is positioning itself as a number one AI companies hub within the Center East, fueling curiosity in startups like Positron.

The technique is already taking form via main commitments, together with a $20 billion AI infrastructure joint venture with Brookfield Asset Management that was introduced in September.

Positron’s fundraise brings the three-year-old startup’s complete capital raised to only over $300 million. The startup beforehand raised $75 million final yr from buyers together with Valor Fairness Companions, Atreides Administration, DFJ Development, Flume Ventures and Resilience Reserve. 

The corporate claims its first-generation chip, Atlas, manufactured in Arizona, can match the efficiency of Nvidia’s H100 GPUs for lower than a 3rd of the ability. Positron is concentrated on inference – computing wanted to run AI fashions for real-world functions – slightly than coaching giant language fashions, positioning the corporate as demand surges for inference {hardware} as companies more and more shift focus from constructing giant fashions to deploying them at scale.

Sources inform TechCrunch that past its reminiscence capabilities, Positron’s chips additionally carry out strongly in high-frequency and video-processing workloads.

TechCrunch has reached out to Positron for extra data.