This AI chip rival of NVIDIA has raised $500M
What's the story
MatX, a semiconductor start-up founded by two ex-Google hardware engineers, has raised $500 million in its Series B funding round. The investment was led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness, an investment fund founded by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner. Other investors include Marvell Technology, NFDG, Spark Capital, and Stripe co-founders Patrick Collison and John Collison.
Competitive edge
MatX's mission and founders' background
MatX's mission is to make its processors 10 times more efficient at training and delivering results for large language models (LLMs) than NVIDIA's GPUs. The start-up was co-founded by Reiner Pope and Mike Gunter in 2023. Before starting MatX, Pope led AI software development for Google's proprietary AI chips, TPUs, while Gunter was a lead designer of the TPU hardware.
Growth trajectory
Funding round details and future plans
MatX's latest funding round comes over a year after its $100 million Series A round led by Spark Capital. In 2024, the start-up was valued at over $300 million. The new funds will be used to manufacture chips with TSMC, with shipments expected to begin in 2027. Despite not disclosing its latest valuation, MatX remains a strong competitor in the AI chip market.