California-based AI infrastructure leader SambaNova has announced a trio of significant developments, launching its new SN50 AI chip, revealing a strategic collaboration with Intel, and securing over $350 million in a Series E financing round that includes prominent investors from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. The company positions its new chip as the most efficient for agentic AI, promising to dramatically lower costs and enhance performance for enterprises.
The SN50 Chip Redefining AI Inference
The newly introduced SN50 chip is engineered for the next wave of autonomous AI agents. SambaNova claims the chip boasts a maximum speed five times faster than competitive offerings and can run agentic AI at a 3x lower total cost of ownership compared to traditional GPUs. This is achieved through the company’s Reconfigurable Data Unit (RDU) architecture, which delivers ultra-low latency, supports thousands of simultaneous AI sessions, and enables massive model capacity with context lengths exceeding 10 million.
“AI is no longer a contest to build the biggest model,” said Rodrigo Liang, co‑founder and CEO of SambaNova. “With the SN50 and our deep collaboration with Intel, the real race is about who can light up entire data centers with AI agents that answer instantly, never stall, and do it at a cost that turns AI from an experiment into the most profitable engine in the cloud.”
Peter Rutten, Research Vice-President at analyst firm IDC, commented on the launch, stating, “The new SambaNova SN50 RDU changes the tokenomics of AI inference at scale. By delivering both high performance and high throughput with a chip that uses existing power and is air cooled, SambaNova is changing the game.”
Strategic Collaboration With Intel And SoftBank Deployment
To accelerate the adoption and distribution of the SN50, SambaNova has entered into a planned multi-year strategic collaboration with Intel. The partnership aims to provide a powerful alternative to GPU-centric solutions by combining SambaNova’s full-stack AI systems with Intel’s CPUs, accelerators, and networking technologies. The collaboration will focus on expanding SambaNova’s AI cloud, integrating infrastructure for production-ready inference, and executing a joint go-to-market strategy.
Kevork Kechichian, EVP and General Manager of the Data Center Group at Intel, noted, “Customers are asking for more choice and more efficient ways to scale AI. By combining Intel’s leadership in compute, networking, and memory with SambaNova’s full-stack AI systems and inference cloud platform, we are delivering a compelling option for organizations looking for GPU alternatives to deploy advanced AI at scale.”
In a major validation of the new technology, SoftBank Corp. will be the first customer to deploy the SN50 chip within its next-generation AI data centers in Japan, creating an AI inference fabric to serve its sovereign and enterprise customers.
Saudi And Gulf Investors Join 350 Million Series E
The oversubscribed Series E funding round was led by Vista Equity Partners and Cambium Capital and saw strong participation from new and existing investors. Notably, the round included strategic capital from the MENA region, with Saudi First Data and Gulf Development Public Company Limited joining as new investors.
Mr. Sharaf Al Hariri, Chairman of First Data, highlighted the strategic importance of the investment for the Kingdom and the wider region.
“SambaNova forms a core part of First Data’s investment strategy to bring advanced AI technologies to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East region. We are investing in SambaNova’s platforms to enable high-performance, low-latency, and sovereign-ready AI capabilities, while benefiting from low power requirements and the ability to operate efficiently within existing air-cooled data center environments. This investment reflects First Data’s broader, long-term commitment to diversifying its technology portfolio, building resilient innovation capabilities, and positioning the company to adapt to evolving global technology trends while delivering sustainable value to the region.”
Proceeds from the funding will be used to expand SN50 production, scale the SambaCloud platform, and deepen enterprise software integrations.
About SambaNova
SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, providing a full stack platform that powers the fastest, most efficient AI inference for enterprises, NeoClouds, AI labs and service providers, and sovereign AI initiatives worldwide. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Jose, California, SambaNova delivers chips, systems, and cloud services that enable customers to deploy state-of-the-art models with superior performance, lower total cost of ownership, and rapid time to value.
Source: Zawya
