By Eric Esposito
Publication Date: 2026-08-20 11:00:00
It’s become a bit boring to hear stories of 20-something techies launching multi-billion-dollar startups from their dorms. However, these tales of online riches usually center around software.
That’s what makes Etched different.
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Gavin Uberti, Robert Wachen and Chris Zhu — a trio of math whiz Harvard dropouts — founded this San Jose startup to build next-gen AI semiconductors. Despite Etched’s youthful leaders and its short history, some experts are already saying it has a chance of chipping away at giants such as Nvidia [NASDAQ: NVDA].
What’s really got people talking about Etched’s prospects is its latest press release, where the company made two huge announcements related to the quant trading firm Jane Street. Not only is Jane Street the first customer to buy an AI rack from Etched, it’s leading a $700 million funding round that values the startup at $21 billion. According to Reuters, that’s double Etched’s estimated valuation from one month ago.
Besides Jane Street, plenty of other big-name investment firms like Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Blackstone want an early piece of Etched. Recent reports also show Etched is having an easy time finding demand for its chips. The company says it already inked deals for its products totaling over $1 billion.
Why is everyone ecstatic about Etched?
Etched is focused on making “inference” — where a trained AI model…
