AI Chip Startup Etched Captures $120M In Hot Market

became the latest startup to ride the wave of investor enthusiasm for AI chips.

The San Francisco-based startup locked up a $120 million round led by and.

The startup is the creator of the transformer-specialized AI chip Sohu, used to train and deploy large language models that are the underpinning of generative AI.

Etched has announced a partnership with to produce the chip, which will be a direct competitor to chip giant 鈥� which dominates the market in AI.

However, the large energy consumption of AI remains a concern, and Etched believes it can provide a more cost-effective and energy-efficient chip that is faster.

Semi explosion

Etched is just the latest chip startup to raise big. Venture funding to semiconductor chips appears well on its way to bouncing back this year after a forgettable 2023. Thus far in 2024, VC-backed chip startups have raised nearly $5.3 billion in just 175 deals, per SA国际传媒 .

Last year, startups saw less than $8.8 billion in 490 deals. In 2022, chip startups locked up almost $10.9 billion in 447 deals.

Some big deals in 2024 include:

This month raised nearly $275 million 鈥� mainly from the German government.
In March, optical interconnectivity startup raised a massive $175 million Series C led by 鈥檚 . Celestial鈥檚 photonic fabric platform helps separate compute and memory, making processing extensive AI faster and more energy-efficient.
In February, San Jose, California-based , which is developing its AI inference chip for both the generative AI and automotive industries, raised a $102 million Series C co-led by and .

More big rounds could be on the way, as it was recently smartphone-maker is leading a round of at least $300 million for Toronto-based AI chip startup .