SambaNova raises $1B at $11B valuation in first close of Series F

SambaNova Systems, a Palo Alto-based AI chip startup, raised $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation in the first close of its Series F round, led by General Atlantic. The company expects additional investors to join in the coming weeks for a second close.

The round follows the February launch of SambaNova’s SN50 chip and a $350 million Series E, both announced roughly five months prior. Intel, which has backed SambaNova since its Series C, participated in the latest round and deepened a multi-year partnership to co-develop AI inference products based on Intel’s Xeon chips.

SambaNova also disclosed a new enterprise customer: JPMorganChase selected its SN40L and SN50 systems as an inference-infrastructure partner to power secure, on-premises AI inference workloads. The bank’s adoption signals a broader industry shift away from exclusive reliance on cloud services, according to SambaNova CEO Rodrigo Liang.

Liang described SambaNova’s edge as “premium inference” optimized for running the largest frontier models quickly, noting that the company fits multi-trillion-parameter models onto a single rack. He added that the proceeds will be used to scale operations and secure supply chain capacity to meet demand over the next 12 months.

Other investors in the round include Seligman Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates, Capital Group, A&E Investment, Assam Ventures, Battery Ventures, Cambium Capital, BlackRock, Kabila Capital, QFO Capital, Qatar Investment Authority, Vista Equity Partners, and Volantis. Existing customers named by SambaNova include Saudi Aramco, Intel, and unspecified Japanese firms.