AI chip startup Positron is seeking about $750 million in financing as investor demand continues to build around companies trying to challenge Nvidia NASDAQ:NVDA, the dominant AI chipmaker. The financing is being discussed in two phases, with the first tranche expected to value Positron at $3.5 billion and a second phase potentially carrying a valuation of about $5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Positron, a Reno-based startup developing energy-efficient inference chips for running artificial intelligence models, has already received multiple term sheets for the round. If completed, the financing could more than triple the company's valuation in just five months, suggesting investors may be placing rising value on inference technology as AI models move from training into real-world use.
The talks come as SambaNova Systems, an AI chip startup, raised $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation, while Etched, another Nvidia rival, recently raised $800 million and signed $1 billion in sales contracts. Cerebras Systems, an inference chipmaker, completed the year's largest initial public offering in May, but its shares now trade below their IPO price after closing at $181.72 on Wednesday, a reminder that enthusiasm for AI hardware startups may still face public-market volatility.