AI hardware startup Etched has raised $700 million in a new funding round that values the company at $21 billion, more than double its previous valuation, as it accelerates production of specialized inference hardware.
The Series D round, led by trading firm Jane Street, follows a $300 million Series C announced in late July that valued Etched at $10.3 billion. The company also disclosed an additional $800 million raised across four previously undisclosed financings. Existing customer contracts are estimated at $1 billion, according to the company.
Etched designs frontier inference clusters, a specialized hardware category built for advanced AI model workloads. The company’s technology incorporates proprietary breakthroughs in Low Voltage Inference and Cluster Scale Memory, enabling mathematical computing blocks to operate at less than half the voltage of traditional processors while maintaining data throughput and avoiding thermal throttling.
The startup has expanded its workforce to over 400 engineers, many recruited from NVIDIA and Google. Manufacturing is handled through a partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), with production scaling at a new 80,000-square-foot prototyping facility near Etched’s San Jose headquarters and a dedicated factory in Taiwan.
Jane Street recently took delivery of Etched’s first operational server rack following a period of internal hardware validation, signaling progress in commercial deployment. Investors in the round include Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Blackstone, Peter Thiel, and VentureTech Alliance.
