# SambaNova Systems Closes $1B Series F at $11B Valuation

> SambaNova has completed the first close of a $1 billion Series F at an $11 billion post-money valuation, led by General Atlantic with a heavyweight roster that includes BlackRock, Intel Capital, the Qatar Investment Authority and T. Rowe Price. A second close is expected within weeks, so the final round size could climb higher. The company builds AI chips and systems aimed at inference, the ongoing cost of actually running models in production rather than training them once. That focus is timely: as businesses deploy AI at scale, the bill for inference is becoming the dominant expense, and SambaNova is positioning itself as an alternative to Nvidia for that workload. JPMorgan Chase has signed on as an inference deployment partner, a notable enterprise validation. Why it matters: the AI chip market is not a one-horse race, and investors are pouring money into challengers betting that specialized inference hardware can undercut general-purpose GPUs on cost and efficiency. Whether SambaNova can convert marquee partnerships into broad adoption is the open question this round is funding.

_Section: [AI Funding Tracker](https://www.wortins.com/funding) · Source: Bloomberg · Published Monday, July 13, 2026_

## Wortins' read

SambaNova has completed the first close of a $1 billion Series F at an $11 billion post-money valuation, led by General Atlantic with a heavyweight roster that includes BlackRock, Intel Capital, the Qatar Investment Authority and T. Rowe Price. A second close is expected within weeks, so the final round size could climb higher. The company builds AI chips and systems aimed at inference, the ongoing cost of actually running models in production rather than training them once. That focus is timely: as businesses deploy AI at scale, the bill for inference is becoming the dominant expense, and SambaNova is positioning itself as an alternative to Nvidia for that workload. JPMorgan Chase has signed on as an inference deployment partner, a notable enterprise validation. Why it matters: the AI chip market is not a one-horse race, and investors are pouring money into challengers betting that specialized inference hardware can undercut general-purpose GPUs on cost and efficiency. Whether SambaNova can convert marquee partnerships into broad adoption is the open question this round is funding.

## Source

[Read the full story at Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-08/ai-chip-startup-sambanova-raises-funds-at-11-billion-valuation)

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