SambaNova Systems, a prominent AI chip company, has successfully closed the first part of its Series F funding round, securing an impressive $1 billion. This latest investment, led by General Atlantic, propels the Palo Alto-based startup's valuation to a substantial $11 billion. The announcement follows closely on the heels of a $350 million Series E round in February 2026, underscoring the rapid growth and investor interest in the specialised AI hardware market.
The significant capital injection arrives amidst increasing demand for advanced AI infrastructure and follows earlier reports in December 2025 suggesting that Intel had been in talks to acquire SambaNova for approximately $1.6 billion. While CEO and co-founder Rodrigo Liang remains open to future strategic options, he indicated that current momentum and growth are likely to steer the company towards a public listing at some point. Intel, an existing backer since SambaNova's Series C, also participated in this latest funding round, deepening their multi-year partnership focused on co-developing and bringing AI inference products to market.
A major win for SambaNova is its selection by JPMorgan Chase as an 'inference-infrastructure partner'. The bank plans to deploy SambaNova's SN40L and SN50 systems to power secure, on-premises AI inference. Liang highlighted this as a significant endorsement, suggesting it signals a broader trend within the banking industry to build private, secure infrastructure for sensitive AI models, rather than relying solely on cloud services. This move is expected to resonate across various sectors, including enterprises and governments that are just embarking on their AI journeys.
SambaNova's latest chip, the SN50, was unveiled in February 2026 and is anticipated to begin shipping to customers in the latter half of 2026, with SoftBank confirmed as its initial deployment partner. The company prides itself on its 'premium inference' capabilities, designed to efficiently run the largest, multi-trillion-parameter AI models quickly, often fitting them onto a single rack. This technological edge is crucial for customers such as sovereign clouds, neoclouds, and large enterprises like Saudi Aramco and various Japanese firms, in addition to JPMorgan.
The newly acquired funds will be strategically deployed to scale SambaNova's business operations and fortify its supply chain. Liang emphasised that securing the supply chain is paramount to meeting the 'incredible wave of demand' and fulfilling orders over the next 12 months. This proactive approach aims to ensure the company can continue to deliver its high-performance AI solutions in a rapidly expanding market.