This SambaNova company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. SambaNova works in semiconductors, with a focus on AI chips and inference cloud. It was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. Its latest valuation on record is More than US$5 billion (historical, 2021 round) (2021). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.
Revenue
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intel acquisition talks | Reported at about US$1.6 billion including debt; stalled by January 2026 | January 2026 | Bloomberg Government |
| Investor markdown | BlackRock marked its stake to an implied US$2.4 billion (reported) | 2025 | Verdict |
| Reported 2026 round (unverified) | First close of a Series F at US$11 billion, led by General Atlantic (single source) | July 2026 | NewsBytes |
Funding history
| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Series D | US$676M | More than US$5B | SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (lead); Temasek, GIC, BlackRock, Intel Capital, GV | Verdict |
SambaNova timeline
Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.
- 2017 — SambaNova is founded in Palo Alto by Rodrigo Liang (CEO), Kunle Olukotun and Christopher Ré.
- 2021 — Series D: US$676M, valuing the company at More than US$5B. Investors: SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (lead); Temasek, GIC, BlackRock, Intel Capital, GV.
- January 2026 — Intel acquisition talks: Reported at about US$1.6 billion including debt; stalled by January 2026.
- 2025 — Investor markdown: BlackRock marked its stake to an implied US$2.4 billion (reported).
- July 2026 — Reported 2026 round (unverified): First close of a Series F at US$11 billion, led by General Atlantic (single source).
Investors
SambaNova Systems is a Palo Alto company that designs AI chips and sells access to them through its own cloud. It was valued at more than US$5 billion in 2021, then saw its value marked down, held acquisition talks with Intel that stalled in early 2026, and was later reported to have raised at a much higher price. This profile sets out what is confirmed about SambaNova's valuation, what remains unverified, and how its business has changed.
SambaNova's valuation
The last valuation confirmed by multiple reliable sources is more than US$5 billion, from a US$676 million Series D in 2021 led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2, according to Verdict. Since then the picture has been volatile:
- BlackRock reportedly cut the value of its SambaNova shares by 17%, implying about US$2.4 billion.
- In December 2025 Bloomberg reported that Intel was moving toward buying SambaNova for about US$1.6 billion including debt.
- By January 2026 those talks had stalled and SambaNova was seeking up to US$500 million of new funding, according to Bloomberg Government and DatacenterDynamics. Intel's chief executive, Lip-Bu Tan, is also SambaNova's chairman, which made the talks unusual.
- In July 2026 NewsBytes reported a first close of a Series F led by General Atlantic at US$11 billion. Startup Fortune said it could not verify that round from reliable public reporting.
Because the 2026 figure rests on a single report and has been questioned, our profile keeps the 2021 figure as the latest confirmed mark and treats the US$11 billion as unverified until the company or a major outlet confirms it.
What SambaNova does
SambaNova designs what it calls reconfigurable dataflow units, chips that move data through a network of compute and memory units rather than processing instructions one at a time like a conventional processor. Its current chip, the SN40L, pairs on-chip memory with large amounts of high-bandwidth and conventional memory, which lets a single system hold very large models or many models at once.
The company has shifted strategy several times. It began by selling full hardware systems to national laboratories and large enterprises, then built a software platform for training and fine-tuning models, and from 2024 focused on fast inference: running open models such as Meta's Llama and DeepSeek's models for developers through SambaNova Cloud, priced per token. That puts it in the same market as other inference specialists. In 2025 it cut staff as it narrowed its focus.
Founders and leadership
SambaNova was founded in 2017 by Rodrigo Liang, a former Oracle and Sun Microsystems chip executive who is chief executive, and two Stanford professors: Kunle Olukotun, a pioneer of multicore processor design, and Christopher Ré, a machine learning researcher. The academic pedigree helped it raise large sums early in the AI chip boom.
Funding rounds and investors
SambaNova raised more than US$1 billion across several rounds before 2022, from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Temasek, GIC, BlackRock, Intel Capital and GV. Its 2021 Series D was one of the largest private chip rounds of that era. Like several AI chip startups funded at the 2021 peak, it then faced a harder market as Nvidia's dominance grew.
Competitive landscape
SambaNova competes with Nvidia, which dominates AI computing, and with AMD and the custom chips built by cloud providers, such as Google's TPUs and Amazon's Trainium and Inferentia. Among startups, its closest rivals in fast inference are Groq, which licensed its technology to Nvidia in a large deal in late 2025, and Cerebras, which went public in 2026; others include Etched, d-Matrix and Tenstorrent. See our guide to AI chip startups.
The market moves favour fast-inference specialists: as AI agents and reasoning models generate far more tokens, speed and cost per token matter more. But competition is intense and customers can switch inference providers easily.
Risks
- Nvidia's ecosystem: most AI software is built around Nvidia's CUDA platform, which makes switching costly.
- Capital intensity: chip design and running a cloud require large, continuous investment.
- Valuation uncertainty: confirmed and reported figures range from about US$1.6 billion (the Intel talks) to US$11 billion.
- Governance: the overlap between Intel's leadership and SambaNova's board drew attention during the acquisition talks.
Questions to ask
- How much of revenue comes from the cloud versus hardware sales?
- What tokens-per-second and cost per million tokens does it achieve on popular models compared with rivals?
- Who are its largest customers, and how concentrated is revenue?
- Has the reported 2026 round closed, and on what terms?
Timeline in brief
- 2017: founded in Palo Alto.
- 2021: raises US$676 million at more than US$5 billion.
- 2024: launches SambaNova Cloud for fast inference.
- 2025: staff cuts; investor markdowns reported.
- December 2025: Intel acquisition talks reported.
- January 2026: talks stall; company seeks new funding.
- July 2026: a US$11 billion Series F reported by one outlet, unconfirmed.
SambaNova at a glance
SambaNova Systems is a Palo Alto AI chip and inference cloud company founded in 2017 by Rodrigo Liang, Kunle Olukotun and Christopher Ré. It raised US$676 million at more than US$5 billion in 2021, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Intel discussed acquiring it for about US$1.6 billion including debt in late 2025, but talks stalled in January 2026. A July 2026 report of an US$11 billion round has not been independently confirmed.
What to watch
Watch for confirmation of any 2026 financing, renewed acquisition interest, customer wins for its inference cloud, and next-generation chips. Compare it with peers in our AI infrastructure guide.
Takeaways
SambaNova shows how volatile AI chip valuations can be: a 2021 unicorn, marked down, nearly sold, then reportedly revalued far higher as demand for fast inference surged. Until the latest round is confirmed, treat its value as uncertain and rely on the 2021 mark as the last verified figure.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.
Frequently asked questions
What does SambaNova do?
SambaNova is a semiconductors / ai chips and inference cloud company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States. It was founded in 2017.
What is SambaNova's valuation?
SambaNova was valued at More than US$5 billion (historical, 2021 round) as of 2021, according to Verdict. Private company valuations are set at funding rounds or share sales and can change significantly between them.
How much revenue does SambaNova make?
SambaNova is a private company and has not publicly disclosed its revenue. Figures on third-party sites are usually modelled estimates rather than numbers reported by the company.
What was SambaNova's latest funding round?
The most recent financing we have verified is a series d in 2021: US$676M, at a valuation of More than US$5B. Source: Verdict.
Who are SambaNova's investors?
Investors named in public announcements include SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Temasek, GIC, BlackRock, Intel Capital, GV and Walden International.
Who founded SambaNova?
SambaNova was founded in 2017 by Rodrigo Liang (CEO), Kunle Olukotun and Christopher Ré.
Is SambaNova a public company?
No. SambaNova is a private company (private, venture backed), so its shares are not traded on a stock exchange and it isn't required to publish its financial results.
Where is SambaNova headquartered?
SambaNova is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States.