Etched Fields Funding Offers at $40B+ Valuation, Doubling September's $21B Round

AI chip startup Etched is reviewing investment offers valuing it at $40 billion to $50 billion, just weeks after raising $700 million at a $21 billion valuation, according to people familiar with the company. The talks are early and terms may change. Etched declined to comment. The four-year-old startup, which builds full AI hardware systems around proprietary inference chips, claims its processors handle tokens faster and cheaper than Nvidia's. Quant firm Jane Street led the September round, announced alongside the $21 billion valuation, and has taken delivery of an early system. Etched said in July it secured $1 billion in customer orders after manufacturing a test chip at a TSMC fab. Roughly 15% of Etched's 400 employees previously worked at Nvidia, per the Wall Street Journal. The company operates a 10-megawatt Silicon Valley datacenter and a production coordination facility in Taiwan. A raise matching its last round would fund about 3.5 years of runway.