Naveen Rao, former head of AI at Databricks, has raised $475 million in seed capital for his new startup, Unconventional AI, at a valuation of $4.5 billion.
The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures, with participation from Lux Capital and DCVC. This is the first tranche towards the target of up to $1 billion for the funding round, Rao told Bloomberg,
TechCrunch first reported in October, That unconventional AI was seeking this mega funding For Rao’s new startup, though, the final valuation is a little less than the $5 billion sources told us he was seeking. If he does eventually raise up to $1 billion, we’ll see what effect that has on the value of his company.
Unconventional AI is set to create a new, energy-efficient computer for AI. Rao has done it before also written on x Their goal is to create a computer that is “as efficient as biology.”
Databricks acquired Rao’s previous startup, MosaicML in 2023For $1.3 billion. Prior to MosaicML, Rao co-founded the machine learning platform Nervana SystemsFor which Intel Corp. acquired in 2016 Allegedly Over $400 million.
