Former Databricks AI Head Naveen Rao Raises $1B for New Startup Unconventional Inc.

Naveen Rao, former head of AI at Databricks, is raising $1B at a $5B valuation for his new startup, Unconventional, Inc. Andreessen Horowitz is leading the investment, with Lightspeed and Lux Capital participating. Rao plans to begin building the startup without waiting for the full round to close, and will raise the rest of the capital in installments. Unconventional aims to rethink computer foundations to build a new substrate for intelligence that is as efficient as biology.

Naveen Rao, the former head of artificial intelligence at Databricks, is in talks to raise $1 billion at a $5 billion valuation for his new startup, Unconventional, Inc. The funding round is led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Lightspeed and Lux Capital. Rao has already secured hundreds of millions and plans to begin building the startup without waiting for the full $1 billion round to close. The rest of the capital will be raised in installments, a funding approach known as a "tranched" round Sources: Naveen Rao’s new AI hardware startup targets $5B valuation with backing from a16z^[1].

Unconventional, Inc. aims to rethink the foundations of a computer to build a new substrate for intelligence that is as efficient as biology. Rao publicly acknowledged the new startup on X, describing its hoped-for product as "Brain Scale Efficiency without the biological baggage!" Sources: Naveen Rao’s new AI hardware startup targets $5B valuation with backing from a16z^[1].

Rao's vision for Unconventional, Inc. is to compete with Nvidia by designing a novel AI machine that includes both custom silicon chips and server infrastructure Sources: Naveen Rao’s new AI hardware startup targets $5B valuation with backing from a16z^[1]. Prior to Unconventional, Inc., Rao co-founded the machine learning platform Nervana Systems, which Intel Corp. acquired in 2016 for reportedly more than $400 million. He also founded MosaicML in 2020, which was acquired by Databricks in 2023 for $1.3 billion Sources: Naveen Rao’s new AI hardware startup targets $5B valuation with backing from a16z^[1].

Unconventional, Inc. joins a growing list of AI hardware startups vying for a slice of the rapidly expanding AI market. The company's ambitious goals and the backing of prominent venture capital firms suggest that it could make a significant impact in the AI hardware sector.