Etched AI Chip Startup Fields Funding Bids of $40 Billion–$50 Billion, Doubling Valuation in Two Months

Etched, a San Jose-based AI inference chip startup, is fielding investment offers valued at $40 billion to $50 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter—a remarkable jump from its $21 billion valuation just two months earlier. The rapid revaluation reflects intense investor appetite for specialized AI hardware as the $400 billion inference market accelerates. Founded in 2022 by Harvard dropouts Gavin Uberti, Robert Wachen, and Chris Zhu, Etched has built proprietary silicon designed exclusively for running transformer-based AI models, avoiding the generalist approach of Nvidia's GPUs. The company's competitive edge lies in two custom components engineered to optimize the prefill and decode phases of AI inference, enabling faster token generation and lower costs than incumbent solutions.