(Bloomberg) — Cerebras Systems Inc., an upstart chipmaker trying to break into the growing market for artificial intelligence processors, raised $250 million in an investment round that valued the company at more than $4 billion.
The valuation represents a nearly 70% jump from a November 2019 round that pegged the company at $2.4 billion. The new funds, contributed by Alpha Wave Ventures and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, will help fuel Cerebras’s global expansion, Chief Executive Officer and founder Andrew Feldman said Wednesday. The investment was the Sunnyvale, California-based company’s Series F round.
The growth of artificial intelligence software has generated massive demand for computing power — and new chips that can handle the task. Feldman’s startup takes a unusual approach to the challenge. The company offers computers built on “chips” that are roughly 8 inches by 8 inches, at least 50 times larger than similar chips available today.
The logic behind its approach is that conventional processors can only hold so much data at one time. That means no matter how fast they are, they’re always getting parts of the information they need from elsewhere. By relying on a massive chip that can crunch a much larger data set, Cerebras customers are able to get answers much quicker, the startup has argued. Unlike other companies struggling to break into this market — and take on companies such as Nvidia Corp. and Intel Corp. — Cerebras has announced large customers that are already using its products, Feldman said. They’re taking on tasks such as drug discovery and climate research.Cerebras has sold systems to Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Tokyo Electron Device Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline Plc and AstraZeneca Plc, the company has said. The startup, which has over 300 engineers, sells computers that are based around its huge chips. Cerebras doesn’t sell the chips directly because it’s so difficult to connect and cool such a huge piece of silicon. Instead, the product is offered as part of a server called the CS-2.
Feldman’s experience includes co-founding server maker SeaMicro Inc. and which he sold to chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. for more than $300 million in 2012. Cerebras has raised more than $720 million from investors such as Benchmark, Andy Bechtolsheim and Sam Altman.
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