"Naveen Rao, the former head of AI at Databricks, has raised $475 million in seed capital at a $4.5 billion valuation for his new startup, Unconventional AI. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures, with participation from Lux Capital and DCVC. The funding is a first installment towards the goal of up to $1 billion for the round, Rao told Bloomberg."
"Unconventional AI is set on building a new, energy-efficient computer for AI. Rao has previously wrote on X that his goal is to create a computer that is "as efficient as biology." Databricks acquired Rao's previous startup, MosaicML in 2023, for $1.3 billion. Prior to MosaicML, Rao co-founded the machine learning platform Nervana Systems, which Intel Corp. acquired in 2016 for reportedly more than $400 million."
Naveen Rao raised $475 million in seed capital at a $4.5 billion valuation for Unconventional AI. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures, with participation from Lux Capital and DCVC. The funding serves as a first installment toward a potential $1 billion round. Unconventional AI aims to build a new, energy-efficient computer for AI, with Rao stating a goal of creating a computer "as efficient as biology." Rao previously sold MosaicML to Databricks for $1.3 billion in 2023 and co-founded Nervana Systems, acquired by Intel in 2016 for reportedly more than $400 million.
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