Etched.ai
Etched is revolutionizing AI hardware with Sohu, the world's first transformer ASIC. By etching the transformer architecture directly into silicon, Sohu achieves AI model inference that is an order of magnitude faster and cheaper than traditional GPUs. This specialization allows for unprecedented performance, enabling complex applications like real-time voice agents and advanced coding assistance. Etched aims to solve the compute bottleneck in AI, making advanced AI models, including trillion-parameter models, accessible and cost-effective. The company is backed by prominent investors and aims to lead the next wave of AI infrastructure.
Etched.ai
Etched is revolutionizing AI hardware with Sohu, the world's first transformer ASIC. By etching the transformer architecture directly into silicon, Sohu achieves AI model inference that is an order of magnitude faster and cheaper than traditional GPUs. This specialization allows for unprecedented performance, enabling complex applications like real-time voice agents and advanced coding assistance. Etched aims to solve the compute bottleneck in AI, making advanced AI models, including trillion-parameter models, accessible and cost-effective. The company is backed by prominent investors and aims to lead the next wave of AI infrastructure.
TL;DR
Product: Sohu — a transformer-specialized ASIC for running transformer-model inference
Latest round: Series A $120M (announced 2024-06-25)
Total funding: 125.36M USD (as of 2024-06-25)
Founded / HQ: Founded 2022; Cupertino, California
Notable investors: Primary Venture Partners, Positive Sum, Two Sigma Ventures, Peter Thiel, Thomas Dohmke
Company Overview
Problem Domain
Compute and cost bottlenecks for transformer-model inference at scale.
Founded
2022
Industry
Semiconductor; AI hardware
Tech Stack
Funding Track Record
Seed round listed on Crunchbase; specific amount/date not provided in evidence.
120M USD
Series A announced June 25, 2024; reporting indicates this brought total raised to 125.36M USD.
500M USD (reported)
Crunchbase News reported a reported $500M round led by Stripes at a reported $5B valuation.
Investor Signal
“Series A co-led by Primary Venture Partners and Positive Sum; participation reported from institutional investors (Two Sigma Ventures) and prominent angel backers including Peter Thiel, Thomas Dohmke, Kyle Vogt, and Charlie Cheever; Crunchbase lists ~21 investors overall.”