Etched raises $700 million, valuation hits $21 billion

Etched, a startup specializing in artificial intelligence inference chips, announced on August 18, 2026, that it has raised an additional $700 million in funding, bringing its valuation to approximately $21 billion. The new round, led by quantitative trading firm Jane Street, comes just weeks after the company closed a $300 million Series C financing in late July that valued it at $10.3 billion. The rapid escalation in valuation, which was $5 billion in December 2025, underscores the intense investor interest in specialized hardware designed to accelerate the process of running AI models after they have been trained.

Jane Street, which had previously tested Etched's technology, became the company's first customer after installing an Etched-powered server rack in its data center last month. The firm stated that it was "pleased with the early results" and that Etched's approach delivers the precision needed for its demanding workloads. The latest investment round also included participation from Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Bain Capital Ventures, and others.

Founded in 2021, Etched initially aimed to design chips optimized for specific AI...