Exclusive: Positron Raises $230M Series B to Take On Nvidia’s AI Chips

Semiconductor startup Positron has raised $230 million in Series B funding, according to information obtained exclusively by TechAmerica.ai. The company plans to use the new capital to accelerate the rollout of its high-speed memory chips, which are a key component in processors designed for artificial intelligence workloads, sources familiar with the deal said.

The funding round values Positron at $1 billion and was co-led by Arena Private Wealth, Jump Trading, and Unless. Strategic participation also came from the Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, which has been expanding its focus on artificial intelligence infrastructure, the sources said.

The Reno-based startup’s Series B comes at a time when hyperscalers and AI companies are expected to reduce their dependence on Nvidia, the long-dominant player in AI chips. Among those seeking alternatives is OpenAI, which, despite being one of Nvidia’s largest customers, has reportedly been dissatisfied with some of Nvidia’s recent AI chip offerings and has been exploring other options since last year.

At the same time, Qatar — through QIA — has been accelerating a broader strategy to develop so-called “sovereign” AI infrastructure, a priority repeatedly highlighted during the World Economic Summit Qatar in Doha this week. Several sources have said that the country views computing capacity as essential to maintaining global economic competitiveness and is positioning itself as a leading AI services hub in the Middle East. That strategy has helped drive interest in companies like Positron.

The approach is already materialising through large-scale investments, including a $20 billion AI infrastructure joint venture with Brookfield Asset Management, announced in December.

With the latest funding, Positron has now raised just over $300 million since its founding three years ago. The company secured $75 million from investors last year, including Valour Equity Partners, Atreides Management, DFJ Growth, Flume Ventures, and Resilience Reserve.

Positron claims its first-generation chip, Atlas, which is manufactured in Arizona, can deliver performance comparable to Nvidia’s H100 GPUs while consuming less than one-third of the power. Rather than focusing on training large language models, Positron is concentrating on inference—the computational work required to run AI models in real-world applications. This positioning could prove advantageous as businesses increasingly shift from model training to large-scale deployment.

The company plans to use the Series B funding to speed up development and delivery of its next-generation Asimov silicon chip, with production targeted for early 2027.

Sources said that, in addition to memory performance, Positron’s chip excels at high-frequency computing and video-processing workloads, expanding its potential use cases.

TechCrunch has contacted Positron for additional details.

This article has been updated to reflect clarification from Positron regarding co-lead investors and valuation.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the date of QIA’s partnership with Brookfield.