Positron Secures $230M in Series B Funding to Challenge Nvidia’s Dominance in AI Chip Market

Semiconductor Startup Positron Secures $230 Million in Series B Funding

Semiconductor startup Positron has recently announced that it has successfully secured $230 million in Series B funding, according to exclusive information obtained by TechCrunch. The company intends to utilize this capital to accelerate the deployment of its high-speed memory chips, a crucial component for chips used in AI workloads, as per sources familiar with the situation.

Among the investors in this funding round is the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the country, which has been increasingly focused on bolstering AI infrastructure, the sources added.

The Reno-based startup’s Series B funding comes at a time when hyperscalers and AI firms are striving to lessen their dependence on Nvidia, a longstanding leader in the industry. This movement is exemplified by OpenAI, one of Nvidia’s major customers, which has reportedly been exploring alternatives to Nvidia’s latest AI chips since last year.

Meanwhile, Qatar, through QIA, is ramping up its efforts to establish “sovereign” AI infrastructure, a goal that has been emphasized at the recent Web Summit Qatar in Doha. Multiple sources have indicated that the country recognizes the significance of compute capacity in maintaining competitiveness on the global economic stage and is positioning itself as a key AI services hub in the Middle East. This positioning has sparked interest in startups like Positron.

Qatar’s strategy is already materializing through significant commitments, such as a $20 billion AI infrastructure joint venture with Brookfield Asset Management that was unveiled in September.

With the Series B funding, Positron’s total capital raised now exceeds $300 million since its inception three years ago. The startup had previously raised $75 million last year from investors like Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, DFJ Growth, Flume Ventures, and Resilience Reserve.

Positron boasts its first-generation chip, Atlas, which is produced in Arizona and is claimed to deliver performance on par with Nvidia’s H100 GPUs while consuming less than a third of the power. The company is primarily focused on inference computing for real-world AI applications, rather than training large language models, aligning with the growing demand for inference hardware as businesses transition from model development to large-scale deployment.

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Positron’s chips have not only demonstrated strong memory capabilities but also excelled in high-frequency and video-processing workloads, according to sources.

TechCrunch has reached out to Positron for further details on this development.