Naveen Rao, the former head of AI at Databricks, has secured $475 million in seed funding at a valuation of $4.5 billion for his latest venture, Unconventional AI.

Leading the investment round are Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures, joined by Lux Capital and DCVC. This initial funding marks the beginning of a larger funding goal, with Rao expressing intentions to raise up to $1 billion, as reported by Bloomberg.

Initial reports from TechCrunch in October highlighted Unconventional AI’s pursuit of substantial funding, slightly below the $5 billion valuation initially speculated. The potential $1 billion funding target will undoubtedly impact the company’s overall value.

Unconventional AI is dedicated to developing an energy-efficient AI-focused computing system. Rao envisions creating a computing platform that mirrors the efficiency of biological systems, as outlined in his previous writings on X.

In 2023, Databricks acquired Rao’s previous venture, MosaicML, for $1.3 billion. Prior to MosaicML, Rao co-founded Nervana Systems, a machine learning platform that was acquired by Intel Corp. in 2016 for over $400 million.