Sources: It aims to start the new AI devices from Naveen Rao Rating 5 billion dollars with support from A16Z

Navin Rao, who was former InconVuneAl, Inc.This builds a new type of computer, according to four people familiar with discussions.

Andrink Horwitz agreed to lead the investment, and Lightspeed and Lux ​​Capital are participating in the deal, two sources said, although any of the VCS companies did not respond to our request to comment. Databricks is also said to invest in the new RAO company, I mentioned Bloomberg last month.

Our sources said that Rao has already raised hundreds of millions and plans to start building the startup without waiting for the full round of one billion dollars to close it. He plans to raise the rest of the capital in installments, a funding approach referred to as a “farm” tour.

Rao refused to comment, although he admitted publicly New startup on X Last week, his name confirms, describing his desired product as “rethinking the foundations of the computer to build a new pillar of intelligence as an effective biology. The efficiency of the brain scale without biological luggage!”

Databricks captured the start of the previous run of Rao Mosaicml in 2023 For $ 1.3 billion. Mosaicml was collected by RAO in 2020 with a focus on training and the publication of large AI models, Mosaicml raised $ 33.7 million of investors including Lux Capital, DCVC, Playground Global and Samsung Next, according to Pitchbook. Before Mosaicml, Rao participated in establishing the machine learning platform NERVANA systemsThe company Intel obtained in 2016 It is said More than $ 400 million.

Rao, who spent more than two years as a deputy of artificial intelligence in Databrics (now estimated at 100 billion dollars And the generation of $ 4 billion in ARR), the company left last month to focus on its new start, according to its personal file, LinkedIn and report earlier from Bloomberg.

Our sources say that Rao’s vision will mainly compete with NVIDIA by designing a new AI machine that includes both custom silicon chips and server infrastructure.