Another AI Chip Startup Bags $300M, Sovereign Money Goes Brrr
A sovereign fund led a $300M Series C at a $4.5B tag because slapping 'AI inference' on a deck still prints. Compute demand supply common sense. 🤖
An inference-chip challenger raised a $300M Series C at a $4.5B valuation, led by a sovereign wealth fund with, evidently, money to set on fire. The pitch was three letters and a TAM the size of a small planet.
To be fair, the demand is real — everyone wants compute, nobody can get enough GPUs, and Nvidia is busy printing the GDP of a mid-size nation. Betting on the picks-and-shovels layer is the one trade VCs can still explain to their LPs with a straight face.
Whether a pre-revenue chip company is worth $4.5B is a question for future you. Present you is just happy the markup hit the spreadsheet.
a16z Casually Vacuums Up Another $7.2B Because Why Not
While the rest of VC is eating instant ramen, the Marc & Ben show scooped $7.2B in fresh dry powder. LPs said 'take my money,' every other GP left on read. 💸
Stripe Now Worth $91B, Still Refuses to IPO Out of Spite
A tender offer bumps the Collison bros to $91B. Late-stage is thawing for the chad names while everyone else quietly marks themselves down in the group chat. 🧊
Seed Rounds: Fewer, Fatter, and Somehow More Insufferable
Median seed checks hit an all-time high while deal count cratered. If you don't have an ex-OpenAI cofounder on the team, it's looking kinda ngmi out there. 🍜