Unconventional AI announces the completion of its substantial $475 million seed funding round

Unconventional AI Secures $475 Million in Initial Funding

Naveen Rao, who formerly led artificial intelligence initiatives at Databricks, has launched a new venture called Unconventional AI, securing $475 million in seed funding and achieving a valuation of $4.5 billion.

This significant investment round was spearheaded by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures, with additional backing from Lux Capital and DCVC. According to Rao, this is just the beginning, as the company aims to raise up to $1 billion in total, as reported by Bloomberg.

Back in October, TechCrunch revealed that Unconventional AI was in pursuit of this substantial capital for Rao’s latest project. Although the current valuation is slightly below the $5 billion previously anticipated, the final figure could shift if the full $1 billion target is met.

The mission of Unconventional AI is to develop a groundbreaking, energy-efficient computing system tailored for artificial intelligence. Rao has expressed on X his ambition to design a computer that matches the efficiency found in biological systems.

Rao’s track record includes the sale of his earlier company, MosaicML, to Databricks in 2023 for $1.3 billion. Before that, he co-founded Nervana Systems, a machine learning platform that was acquired by Intel in 2016 for over $400 million.