Unconventional AI Raises $475 Million Seed Round at $4.5 Billion Valuation

Unconventional AI, the new venture founded by former Databricks AI chief Naveen Rao, has confirmed raising $475 million in seed funding at a $4.5 billion valuation. 

The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures, with participation from Lux Capital and DCVC. Rao told Bloomberg that this is only the first phase of a broader capital plan that could hit $1 billion.

Andreessen Horowitz said on LinkedIn that it is backing the company’s effort to build “highly efficient AI-first chips,” describing the work as a major technical moonshot. 

The company aims to build a new class of computers designed specifically for AI workloads and engineered to consume far less energy than today’s systems. Rao has described the goal as machines that operate “as efficiently as biology.”

In a blog post, the startup said the looming energy bottleneck in AI demands “massive gains in computational efficiency,” likening its approach to how Formula One teams design aerodynamics by building a “biology-scale model of the intelligence layer in a silicon wind tunnel.”

Rao is joined by researchers Michael Carbin, Sara Achour and MeeLan Lee, whose backgrounds span hardware, software and large-scale computer systems. The company plans to test multiple prototypes over the next several years and refine what it calls “the paradigm that can scale most efficiently and cost-effectively.” 

Rao has said the startup is deliberately pursuing a long-cycle engineering strategy rather than chasing near-term revenue.

Unconventional AI now joins a growing list of AI infrastructure startups commanding billion-dollar valuations at inception. Recent examples include Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence at more than $30 billion, Mira Murati’s Thinking Machine Labs at $10 billion, and Bret Taylor’s Sierra at a similar valuation.