SambaNova Raises $1 Billion For AI Inference Hardware Without IPO Timing
TechCrunch reported that SambaNova Systems raised $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation, named JPMorganChase as an inference-infrastructure partner and did not give IPO timing or SN50 customer shipment dates beyond the second half of 2026.
SambaNova Raises $1 Billion For AI Inference Hardware
TechCrunch reported that SambaNova Systems raised $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation, giving the AI chip company fresh capital for inference hardware while its next-generation SN50 system has not yet shipped to customers.
The Palo Alto company said the first close of its Series F round was led by General Atlantic, with more investors expected to join in a second close.
The SambaNova AI chip funding round comes roughly five months after the company unveiled its SN50 chip and announced a $350 million Series E in February.
Rodrigo Liang, SambaNova's chief executive and co-founder, said more investors were expected in the next few weeks, while the public record still lacks a final Series F size.
The company said it will use the proceeds to scale the business and secure its supply chain.
Liang described the capital as needed to buy materials and fulfil orders over the next 12 months, tying the raise to hardware delivery rather than only balance-sheet expansion.
JPMorganChase Selects SN40L And SN50 Systems
SambaNova said JPMorganChase selected it as an inference-infrastructure partner, with SN40L and SN50 systems set to support secure on-premises AI inference at the bank.
Liang said the JPMorganChase selection showed that banks want infrastructure choices beyond full dependence on cloud services.
The source identifies JPMorganChase as a bank customer for inference infrastructure, while the public record still lacks the size of the deployment, the contract value, the number of systems ordered or the timetable for production use.
The public record lists the customer win important evidence for enterprise demand without turning it into a disclosed revenue figure.
SN50 Shipments Are Due In The Second Half Of 2026
SambaNova said it launched SN40L in September 2023 for cloud availability and November 2023 for on-premises availability.
Liang said customer shipments for SN50 are scheduled to start in the second half of 2026 after the February 2026 unveiling, and he named SoftBank as the first deployment partner.
The hardware claim is tied to inference for large AI models.
Liang said SambaNova is focused on premium inference for the largest models and said the company's systems can fit multi-trillion-parameter models onto a single rack.
Independent benchmark results, customer performance data or third-party validation remain outside the public record.
Intel remains part of the story.
The source describes Intel as a SambaNova backer since the company's Series C and as a participant in the latest round.
SambaNova and Intel also announced a multi-year partnership earlier this year to support AI inference development based on Intel's Xeon chip.
Investors Include QIA, BlackRock And T. Rowe Price
The Series F investor list adds a capital-market dimension to the chip story.
Alongside General Atlantic, the round included Seligman Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates and Capital Group.
The source also named Qatar Investment Authority, BlackRock, Vista Equity Partners, Battery Ventures, A&E Investment, Assam Ventures, Cambium Capital, Kabila Capital, QFO Capital and Volantis among new and existing investors.
Liang said the company continues to receive interest and said growth would most likely drive SambaNova towards being public at some point.
An IPO filing, exchange, target date, revenue figures, profitability data, final Series F size, SN50 shipment volumes or named order values remain outside the public record.
