Benchmark Capital, a key investor in AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems, has raised $225 million in special funds to further support the company’s innovative technology. Cerebras recently secured $1 billion in fresh capital, valuing the Nvidia competitor at $23 billion, a significant increase from its previous valuation of $8.1 billion. While Tiger Global led the recent funding round, Benchmark Capital, a long-time supporter of Cerebras since 2016, contributed a substantial amount to this investment.
Back in 2016, Benchmark Capital led Cerebras’ Series A funding with $27 million. To further support Cerebras, Benchmark created two ‘Benchmark Infrastructure’ vehicles, each designed to finance the AI chipmaker’s growth. Cerebras stands out due to the scale of its processors, particularly its Wafer Scale Engine chip, which houses 4 trillion transistors on an 8.5-inch silicon piece, utilizing an entire silicon wafer for manufacturing.
This unique architecture houses 900,000 specialized cores that work in parallel, enhancing AI processing speed by over 20 times compared to other systems. Cerebras’ continued advancements in the AI infrastructure sector demonstrate the potential for significant progress in AI technology.
Source: TechCrunch