Nvidia challenger AI chip startup MatX raised $500M
#MatX #AI chips #Nvidia #Google TPU #Series B funding #LLM training #TSMC #Reiner Pope
📌 Key Takeaways
- MatX raised $500M Series B funding led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness
- Founded by former Google TPU engineers aiming to create processors 10x better than Nvidia's GPUs
- Previous funding includes $100M Series A and 2024 round valuing company at $300M+
- New funding will enable production with TSMC, with chips shipping in 2027
📖 Full Retelling
MatX, an AI chip startup founded by former Google TPU engineers Reiner Pope and Mike Gunter, raised $500 million in Series B funding on February 24, 2026, to develop processors that are 10 times more efficient than Nvidia's GPUs for training large language models. The round was led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness, an investment fund formed by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, with participation from Marvell Technology, NFDG, Spark Capital, and Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison. Before launching MatX in 2023, Pope led AI software development for Google's TPUs while Gunter served as lead designer of the TPU hardware, giving the startup deep expertise in specialized AI computing hardware. The substantial funding comes more than a year after MatX's $100 million Series A round and follows a 2024 financing that valued the company at over $300 million, positioning it to compete with other Nvidia challengers in the increasingly competitive AI chip market.
🏷️ Themes
AI Hardware, Startup Funding, Tech Competition
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Venture round
Type of funding round
A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the primary stimuli for the development of new companies and...
Nvidia
American multinational technology company
Nvidia Corporation ( en-VID-ee-ə) is an American technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang, Chris Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem, it develops graphics processing units (GPUs), systems on chips (SoCs), and application programming interfaces (APIs) for...
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In Brief Posted: 4:45 PM PST · February 24, 2026 Marina Temkin Nvidia challenger AI chip startup MatX raised $500M MatX, a chip startup founded by two former Google hardware engineers, has raised a $500 million Series B led by Jane Street and Situational Awareness, an investment fund formed by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner. The company’s goal is to make its processors 10 times better at training LLMs and delivering results than Nvidia’s GPUs. Other investors in the round include Marvell Technology, NFDG, Spark Capital, and Stripe co-founders Patrick Collison and John Collison, the startup’s founder and CEO Reiner Pope announced Tuesday in a post on LinkedIn . Although the company didn’t release its latest valuation, Etched, MatX’s closest competitor, raised a $500 million round at a $5 billion valuation , Bloomberg reported last month. Etched didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. MatX’s latest round comes more than a year after its Series A of about $100 million, which was led by Spark Capital. TechCrunch earlier reported that the 2024 round valued the startup at more than $300 million . Before co-founding MatX in 2023, Pope led AI software development for Google’s TPUs, the tech giant’s proprietary AI chips. His co-founder , Mike Gunter, was a lead designer of the TPU hardware before leaving to launch the startup. The new funding will help MatX produce its chips with TSMC, with plans to start shipping them in 2027. Techcrunch event Save up to $300 or 30% to TechCrunch Founder Summit 1,000+ founders and investors come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from founders and investors who have shaped the industry. Connect with peers navigating similar growth stages. Walk away with tactics you can apply immediately. Offer ends March 13. Save up to $300 or 30% to TechCrunch Founder Summit 1,000+ founders and investors come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit...
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