San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup Etched has successfully raised $120 million in a series-A funding round aimed at advancing its specialized processor technology. The company's focus is on creating a dedicated chip tailored to efficiently run AI models, specifically targeting the transformer architecture widely utilized by platforms like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.
Nvidia currently dominates the server AI chip market with an estimated 80% share, primarily offering general-purpose chips that excel across various computing tasks but consume more power compared to specialized processors. Etched aims to carve a niche by designing a chip optimized specifically for AI inference tasks, which involve generating content and responses based on AI models.
Backers in this funding round include notable figures like former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel and Replit CEO Amjad Masad, highlighting strong investor confidence in Etched's technology and market potential.
CEO Gavin Uberti emphasized the strategic partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) for chip fabrication. This collaboration is pivotal as Etched prepares to "tape out" its chip designs for manufacturing, a crucial step supported by the series-A funds.
Uberti acknowledged the inherent risk in focusing solely on transformer-based AI models, stating, "If transformers go away, our company will die. But if they stick around, we're going to be one of the biggest companies of all time." This underscores Etched's commitment to betting on the sustained relevance and growth of transformer architectures in the AI industry.
Founded by Uberti and Chris Zhu, Etched has rapidly grown to a 35-person team and aims to significantly impact the AI hardware landscape with its specialized chip technology.
