Semiconductor Startup Positron Raises $230M in Series B Funding for AI Memory Chips

Semiconductor startup Positron has successfully raised $230 million in Series B funding to expedite the deployment of its high-speed memory chips crucial for AI workloads. The funding round, co-led by Arena Private Wealth, Jump Trading, and Unless, also saw strategic investment from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the country’s sovereign wealth fund. The funding has brought Positron to a valuation of $1 billion. The startup's Series B funding arrives at a time when hyperscalers and AI firms seek alternatives to reduce their reliance on industry leader Nvidia. OpenAI, one of Nvidia’s major customers, has reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with the latest AI chips and has been exploring alternatives.

Meanwhile, Qatar, through QIA, is aggressively pursuing a broader expansion into 'sovereign' AI infrastructure, emphasizing the significance of compute capacity in remaining competitive on the global economic stage and positioning itself as a leading AI services hub in the Middle East. Positron’s fundraise, which brings the total capital raised to just over $300 million, will support the acceleration of its roadmap to ship its next-generation Asimov silicon chip, with production targeted for early 2027. Beyond memory capabilities, Positron’s chips also demonstrate strong performance in high-frequency and video-processing workloads.

The company's first-generation chip, Atlas, manufactured in Arizona, is capable of matching the performance of Nvidia’s H100 GPUs while using less than a third of the power. The funding will further solidify Positron's position in meeting the surging demand for inference hardware, as businesses increasingly shift focus from building large models to deploying them at scale.

Read more about the funding here.