Semiconductor startup Positron has secured $230 million in Collection B funding, TechCrunch has completely realized. The outfit plans to use the capital to pace up deployment of its high-speed reminiscence chips, a essential element for the chips used for AI workloads, sources conversant in the matter informed TechCrunch.
Traders in the spherical embody Qatar Funding Authority (QIA), the nation’s sovereign wealth fund, which has been more and more targeted on constructing out AI infrastructure, the sources mentioned.
The Reno-based startup’s Collection B comes as hyperscalers and AI companies push to cut back their reliance on longstanding chief Nvidia. These companies embody OpenAI, which, regardless of being one in all Nvidia’s largest and most vital clients, is reportedly unhappy with a few of the agency’s newest AI chips and has been in search of alternate options since final 12 months.
In the meantime, Qatar, by QIA, has been accelerating a broader push into so-called “sovereign” AI infrastructure – a precedence repeatedly underscored at Net Summit Qatar in Doha this week. A number of sources informed TechCrunch the nation views compute capability as essential to staying aggressive on the world financial stage, and is positioning itself as a number one AI providers hub in the Center East, fueling curiosity in startups like Positron.
The technique is already taking form by main commitments, together with a $20 billion AI infrastructure joint venture with Brookfield Asset Management that was introduced in September.
Positron’s fundraise brings the three-year-old startup’s whole capital raised to simply over $300 million. The startup beforehand raised $75 million final 12 months from traders together with Valor Fairness Companions, Atreides Administration, DFJ Development, Flume Ventures and Resilience Reserve.
The corporate claims its first-generation chip, Atlas, manufactured in Arizona, can match the efficiency of Nvidia’s H100 GPUs for lower than a 3rd of the energy. Positron is targeted on inference – computing wanted to run AI fashions for real-world purposes – quite than coaching giant language fashions, positioning the firm as demand surges for inference {hardware} as companies more and more shift focus from constructing giant fashions to deploying them at scale.
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June 23, 2026
Sources inform TechCrunch that past its reminiscence capabilities, Positron’s chips additionally carry out strongly in high-frequency and video-processing workloads.
TechCrunch has reached out to Positron for extra information.
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