"MatX, founded by ex-Google engineers, raises $500M Series B. Led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness, the startup aims to enhance Large Language Mode
**News Brief:**
MatX, a startup focused on chip development founded by two ex-Google hardware engineers, Reiner Pope and Mike Gunter, has secured a $500 million Series B funding round led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness, an investment fund established by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner. The company aims to improve its processors' capabilities in training Large Language Models (LLMs) and delivering results by a factor of 10 compared to Nvidia's GPUs.
Investors in the round include Marvell Technology, NFDG, Spark Capital, and Stripe co-founders Patrick Collison and John Collison. Pope announced the news on LinkedIn Tuesday. Although MatX has not disclosed its latest valuation, Etched, considered MatX's closest competitor, recently raised a $500 million round at a $5 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg's report from last month. Etched did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MatX's latest funding follows more than a year after its Series A of approximately $100 million, which was led by Spark Capital. TechCrunch previously reported that the 2024 round valued the startup at over $300 million. Prior to founding MatX in 2023, Pope oversaw AI software development for Google's TPUs, while Gunter served as a lead designer of the TPU hardware before departing to establish the startup.
The new funding will enable MatX to manufacture its chips with TSMC, with plans to start shipping them in 2027.
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