AI chip startup Etched is currently evaluating new investment offers that value the company between $40 billion and $50 billion. These discussions follow a funding round in September 2026, where the firm raised $700 million at a valuation of $21 billion.
The four-year-old company focuses on developing full AI hardware systems using proprietary chips designed to accelerate inference. Etched claims its processors outperform Nvidia hardware in speed and cost efficiency, a factor that attracted Jane Street as both an investor and a customer.
As of July 2026, Etched reported $1 billion in customer orders. The startup has built a 10-megawatt datacenter in Silicon Valley and maintains a production coordination facility in Taiwan near its manufacturing partner, TSMC.
The company employs 400 people, with approximately 15% of the staff having prior experience at Nvidia. Founders Gavin Uberti, Chris Zhu, and Robert Wachen established the startup after leaving Harvard.
