New York, Feb 7, 2026, 08:18 (EST)
- Vista Equity Partners is leading a Series E raise of more than $350 million for AI chip startup SambaNova, sources say.
- Intel plans to invest about $100 million, with commitments that could reach $150 million, the sources said.
- The round underscores fresh investor demand for inference chips used to run AI applications.
Vista Equity Partners is leading a new funding round of more than $350 million in artificial intelligence chip startup SambaNova Systems, people familiar with the matter said. Intel, already an investor, plans to put in about $100 million, with commitments that could rise to $150 million, two of the people said. 1
The money is aimed at inference hardware — chips that run trained AI models and spit out answers fast — as startups try to sell alternatives to Nvidia’s graphics processors, or GPUs. Demand has been building as more companies shift from training models to deploying them in products and services.
Vista’s involvement matters because it is better known for buying and backing enterprise software companies, not chip designers. It comes as investors have been punishing listed software names, with a selloff this week erasing nearly $1 trillion in market value, according to Reuters. 2
Vista is investing through a partnership with early-stage venture capital firm Cambium Capital, three of the sources said. They described the round as oversubscribed — investor demand is higher than the amount being raised — and cautioned that the fundraising is still in motion and final terms could change.
The valuation for the Series E round was not known. The sources said discussions are continuing with backers and the final size of the raise may shift.
Vista, SambaNova and Intel declined to comment. Cambium did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
SambaNova sells inference chips and systems designed to run AI workloads. SiliconANGLE reported that its flagship inference chip is called the SN40L and is made using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s five-nanometer process, with the company shipping the chips in a 16-accelerator system. 3
The raise lands amid a burst of dealmaking around Nvidia challengers. AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems said this week it raised $1 billion in funding that valued it at $23 billion, while Nvidia agreed in December to license technology from Groq and hire away senior executives, Reuters has reported. 4
Intel’s continued backing follows stalled acquisition talks with SambaNova, the sources said. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan also serves as SambaNova’s executive chairman, and Reuters has previously reported that Intel discussed buying the startup for about $1.6 billion, including debt.
SambaNova was valued at $5 billion in a 2021 funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, and it later carried out layoffs in 2024, the sources said. The company has raised more than $1 billion since it was founded in 2017 and has shifted its focus toward inference and cloud services; one of the sources said it told employees last month it had crossed its sales target for the fiscal year.
But the round is not final, and a crowded inference market could test new entrants even with deep-pocketed backers. Nvidia still sets the pace in AI computing, and chip startups need steady customer demand to justify big, capital-heavy roadmaps.
