{"slug": "nvidia-challenger-etched-more-than-doubles-valuation-in-less-than-a-month", "title": "Nvidia challenger Etched more than doubles valuation in less than a month", "summary": "U.S. semiconductor startup Etched has raised $700 million at a valuation of $21 billion, more than double its previous valuation of $10.3 billion from a $300 million Series C round in July. Jane Street led the round, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Tiger Global. Etched, which develops specialized AI inference chips, has now raised $1.9 billion and secured over $1 billion in contracts.", "body_md": "# Nvidia challenger Etched more than doubles valuation in less than a month\n\nU.S. semiconductor startup Etched has raised $700 million at a valuation of $21 billion, more than double the figure recorded during its previous financing round in July, [Qazinform](https://qazinform.com/) News Agency correspondent reports.\n\nJane Street led the latest investment, with Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global also participating. The funding comes roughly four weeks after Etched raised $300 million in a Series C round that valued the company at $10.3 billion. Including the latest financing, Etched has raised $1.9 billion since its founding.\n\nBased in San Jose, California, Etched develops specialized chips for [AI](https://qazinform.com/tag/ai) inference, the stage at which an already trained model processes a request and generates a response. As chatbots and other [AI](https://qazinform.com/tag/ai) services attract more users, companies require increasing amounts of computing capacity to run their models. Etched says its purpose-built systems can complete this work faster and at a lower cost than hardware designed for a broader range of computing tasks.\n\nThe company is seeking to establish itself in a market currently dominated by [Nvidia](https://qazinform.com/tag/nvidia)’s graphics processing units. Etched and other specialized chipmakers are focusing on the cost and energy required to generate [AI](https://qazinform.com/tag/ai) output, with performance often measured by the number of tokens, or small units of generated text, produced per dollar and per watt.\n\nEtched said it has secured more than $1 billion in contracts with [AI](https://qazinform.com/tag/ai) developers and cloud service providers. Jane Street is both the lead investor in the latest round and the startup’s first customer. The trading firm received its first Etched server rack in July and has begun using the equipment in its operations. Etched currently employs more than 400 people and says it has produced a functioning chip.\n\nEarlier, [Qazinform reported](https://qazinform.com/news/nvidia-unveils-global-tech-alliance-to-boost-ai-security-3158a3) that U.S. technology company [Nvidia](https://qazinform.com/tag/nvidia) had launched the Open Secure [AI](https://qazinform.com/tag/ai) Alliance, a global technology alliance that brings together around 40 leading companies.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nvidia-challenger-etched-more-than-doubles-valuation-in-less-than-a-month", "canonical_source": "https://qazinform.com/news/nvidia-challenger-etched-more-than-doubles-valuation-in-less-than-a-month-0ff45f", "published_at": "2026-08-19 04:32:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-19 04:41:12.919603+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-chips", "ai-infrastructure", "ai-startups"], "entities": ["Etched", "Jane Street", "Kleiner Perkins", "Sequoia Capital", "Andreessen Horowitz", "Tiger Global", "Nvidia"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nvidia-challenger-etched-more-than-doubles-valuation-in-less-than-a-month", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nvidia-challenger-etched-more-than-doubles-valuation-in-less-than-a-month.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nvidia-challenger-etched-more-than-doubles-valuation-in-less-than-a-month.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/nvidia-challenger-etched-more-than-doubles-valuation-in-less-than-a-month.jsonld"}}