Home / Business and Economy / Vista Equity Eyes AI Chips in $350M+ SambaNova Deal
Vista Equity Eyes AI Chips in $350M+ SambaNova Deal
7 Feb
Summary
- Vista Equity leads $350M+ funding for AI chip startup SambaNova.
- Intel Corp is also participating with a potential $150M investment.
- SambaNova aims to compete with Nvidia for AI inference chip demand.
Vista Equity Partners is reportedly leading a funding round of over $350 million for artificial intelligence chip startup SambaNova Systems. This investment represents a notable shift for Vista, which traditionally concentrates on enterprise software acquisitions. The Series E round also includes participation from existing investor Intel Corp, potentially contributing up to $150 million.
SambaNova Systems is raising capital to enhance its competitiveness against market leader Nvidia Corp and address the burgeoning demand for inference chips essential for AI applications. The valuation of this funding round remains undisclosed, and terms are subject to change as fundraising continues.
This move by Vista, a firm managing over $100 billion in assets, comes at a time when software stocks are facing market pressures. Simultaneously, interest in AI hardware has surged, with increased deal-making involving Nvidia challengers as companies seek efficient AI chips.
Previously, acquisition talks between Intel and SambaNova for approximately $1.6 billion had reportedly stalled. SambaNova, founded in 2017, has raised over $1 billion to date and has recently focused on AI inference and cloud services, having also conducted layoffs in 2024.
