AI Hardware and Infrastructure Funding Surges: Etched Raises $300M at $10.3B, Venture Capital Hits $412.7B
Key Questions
What funding did Etched secure and for what purpose?
Etched raised $300M at a $10.3B valuation led by Sequoia for its AI inference chips. The company is expanding an 80k sq ft facility amid surging demand.
How dominant is AI in recent US venture capital trends?
US VC reached $412.7B in H1 2026, with 86% allocated to AI and 81% of that going to rounds of $100M or larger.
What other major AI funding rounds were reported?
SambaNova raised $1B, Keyfactor $1B, Prime Intellect $130M, and OpenRouter hit a $1.3B valuation. DeepSeek led a wave of 10 new AI unicorns.
AI chip startup Etched raised $300M at $10.3B valuation for inference chips, with Sequoia leading and SK Hynix participating. 80k sq ft facility, demand outpacing supply. US venture capital hit $412.7B in H1 2026, with 86% AI share and 81% going to $100M+ rounds. SambaNova raised $1B, Keyfactor $1B, Prime Intellect $130M. European AI venture funding surged to $10B+ in Q2 2026. OpenRouter reached $1.3B valuation. DeepSeek leads 10 new AI unicorns in $110B funding month. Communities increasingly reject data center projects, with 5x higher resistance in lower-income areas.