Nvidia-Backed AI Chip Networking Startup Enfabrica Lands $125M Series B

Enfabrica, which designs networking chips to handle AI workloads, closed a $125 million Series B led by Atreides Management, and included an investment from new investor Nvidia.

The round — which increased the company’s valuation more than 5x from its previous round — also saw participation from existing investor Sutter Hill Ventures, and included new investors IAG Capital Partners, Liberty Global Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Infinitum Partners and Alumni Ventures.

Mountain View, California-based Enfabrica’s chip allows for the consistent flow of data needed for modern AI workloads. The company plans to use the new cash infusion to expand its research and development capabilities and grow production.

“The fundamental challenge with today’s AI boom is the scaling of infrastructure,” Enfabrica co-founder and CEO Rochan Sankar said in a release. “There’s no denying the transformative value that AI delivers to a multitude of economic sectors. But there is a critical need to bridge the exploding demand to the overall cost, efficiency and ease of scaling AI compute, across all customers seeking to take control of their distributed AI infrastructure and services.

AI infrastructure draws big investment

The last week-plus has seen investors open their pocketbook not necessarily for generative AI applications but the actual hardware, chips and other infrastructure needed for such modeling.

Last week, Imbue locked down a massive $200 million Series B that valued the AI research lab at $1 billion. The round also included an investment from Nvidia — which has participated in several AI funding deals for the likes of Adept AI and Cohere.

That was followed the next day by generative AI chip designer D-Matrix closing a $110 million Series B led by Singapore-based Temasek.