What happened
AI chip company SambaNova Systems closed the first tranche of its Series F funding round, raising $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation, led by General Atlantic. This capital follows a $350 million Series E in February, which coincided with the unveiling of its SN50 chip. SambaNova also announced JPMorgan Chase selected its SN40L and SN50 systems as an inference-infrastructure partner, powering secure, on-premises AI inference at the bank. The company will use the proceeds to scale operations and secure its supply chain against demand.
Why it matters
Access to secure, on-premises AI inference infrastructure will become a competitive differentiator for regulated industries. Procurement teams and security architects are prioritising dedicated hardware to maintain data sovereignty and control over sensitive models, reducing reliance on public cloud services. This $11 billion valuation and the JPMorgan Chase deal underscore a market shift towards specialised AI inference chips for internal deployments, following Cerebras Systems' $100 billion IPO valuation in May.
