AI chip startup building Sohu, an ASIC purpose-built for transformer inference
Etched builds Sohu, an ASIC purpose-built for transformer inference, and full AI hardware systems powered by its own chips, claiming more tokens processed faster and cheaper than Nvidia GPUs. Co-founded by Gavin Uberti (CEO) and Chris Zhu, who met in a Harvard math course, and Robert Wachen (COO), Uberti's roommate; they dropped out to start it. It manufactured its test chip at TSMC in summer 2026, reported $1B in customer orders, runs a 10 MW Silicon Valley data center and a Taiwan facility, and has about 400 staff. Valued at $5B in December 2025, it raised a $300M Series C at $10.3B led by Sequoia in July 2026 and $700M at $21B led by customer Jane Street in August 2026. In October 2026 TechCrunch reported unsolicited offers at $40B–$50B; those talks had not closed.
AI📍 Cupertino, CAFounded 2022
Current Valuation
$21B
as of 2026-08-18
DECACORN
IPO Outlookprivate
Is Etched going public?
No. Etched has no imminent IPO plans on record. It is still private.
What is Etched's valuation in 2026?
Etched is valued at $21B as of 08/18/2026, set by its Series C extension / growth (unlabeled) ($700M, Aug 2026). That is the last confirmed mark, not a live price — private shares do not trade continuously.
Has Etched filed an S-1?
No public S-1 is on file for Etched.
Who are Etched's investors?
Etched's investors include Primary Venture Partners, Peter Thiel, Stanley Druckenmiller, GV, Two Sigma Ventures, Jane Street and 11 more.
How much has Etched raised?
Etched has raised $1.7B in total across 4 disclosed rounds, most recently a Series C extension / growth (unlabeled) of $700M in Aug 2026.
Is Etched publicly traded — can you buy Etched stock?
No. Etched is a private company — its shares are not listed on any exchange and there is no ticker. The routes to exposure are pre-IPO secondary marketplaces and funds (accredited investors), employee tender offers when the company runs one, and public companies with read-through exposure. QuantLogix maps every route it can verify for Etched on its Pre-IPO Access Desk.
Answers are derived from the roster record shown on this page — filing status, last round and confirmed marks. Where the record is silent, the answer says so rather than guessing.
Company Profile
CEO
Gavin Uberti
Founded
2022
HQ
Cupertino, CA
Employees
400
Total Raised
$1.7B
Growth
$1B+ in customer orders (July 2026) incl. Jane Street; test chip manufactured at TSMC summer 2026; valuation $5B (Dec 2025) → $10.3B (Jul 2026) → $21B (Aug 2026); reported $40–50B offers (Oct 2026, not closed)
Last Round
Series C extension / growth (unlabeled) — $700M (Aug 2026) · Lead: Jane Street
IPO Status
no imminent plans
Fundraising Status
Series C extension / growth (unlabeled) · $700M · 2 mo ago
no imminent plansTotal raised $1.7B4 disclosed rounds
Series C extension / growth (unlabeled) Impact
Round Size
$700M
Primary financing announced
Post-Money Valuation
$21B
Company-announced mark
Valuation Step-Up
+103.9%
vs Series C at $10B
Round / Post-Money
3.3%
New capital ÷ post-money
Disclosed Funding
$1.7B
Cumulative disclosed rounds
Step-up compares disclosed post-money valuations. Round / post-money is a financing-size ratio, not an ownership or dilution estimate.
Secondary Market
Implied price / share
$93.57
Last round price / share
$15.39
vs last round
+508.0%
Open interest
8
Last round price vs secondary price
Secondary price return by period
Implied per-share price from private secondary transactions, as of Jun 2026. This is a point estimate, not a quote — the feed carries no bid, ask or spread, and a secondary print is evidence of what someone paid on that date rather than a live market. Compare across every tracked name →
Growth & Valuation
Valuation across funding rounds
Valuation step-up per round
Capital raised per round
Charts built from publicly disclosed funding rounds and revenue estimates. Approximate, not real-time, not investment advice.
Funding History
Round
Amount
Date
Lead Investor
Post-Money
Series C extension / growth (unlabeled)
$700M
Aug 2026
Jane Street
$21B
Series C
$300M
Jul 2026
Sequoia Capital
$10B
Mark
—
Dec 2025
—
$5.0B
Series A
$120M
Jun 2024
Primary Venture Partners
—
Vertical Intelligence — AI / ML
Open models
1
verified organization
Downloads (30d)
0
across all models
Followers
13,939
Attributed to Hugging Face organization "Etched" as of 2026-10-04. Open-weights footprint only — closed-model usage is not publicly measurable. Verify on Hugging Face ↗
Talent Signal
Hiring trend
▶ Hiring steady
-4% vs 2026-08
Open roles
105
via ashby
Product-build share
66%
engineering, research, product, design
Trajectory
steady
heavy product build — 66% of open roles are product-building functions (engineering/research/product) — 31 of 105 open roles are engineering.
Counted from Etched's live job board as of 2026-09-16; role functions classified from posting titles. Open-role counts are an activity signal, not headcount. Refreshed monthly.
Founders & Key People
Gavin UbertiRobert WachenChris Zhu
Investors
Primary Venture Partners · Peter Thiel · Stanley Druckenmiller · GV · Two Sigma Ventures · Jane Street · Sequoia Capital · Kleiner Perkins · Andreessen Horowitz · Tiger Global · Bain Capital Ventures · Neo · Stripes · Positive Sum · Diffusion · Argo · Blackstone
Products
Sohu (transformer inference ASIC)
Full AI hardware systems/clusters built on its own chips (first shipped cluster installed at Jane Street)
10 MW data center in Silicon Valley; Taiwan facility coordinating production near TSMC
Competitors
Groq · Cerebras · Tenstorrent · SambaNova
AIHardwareInferenceASIC
Private-company numbers are not real-time. Reflects publicly disclosed valuations from press releases, news reports, and tender offers as of 2026-08-18. Refreshed quarterly.