Naveen Rao, the former AI lead at Databricks, has successfully secured $475 million in seed funding for his latest venture, Unconventional AI, which is valued at an impressive $4.5 billion. This funding round, spearheaded by top investment firms Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures, also saw participation from notable investors such as Lux Capital and DCVC. According to Rao, this initial capital is part of a broader fundraising goal targeting up to $1 billion.
Unconventional AI aims to revolutionize the field of artificial intelligence with the development of a new, energy-efficient computing system for AI applications. Rao has previously expressed on social media his ambition to design a computer with efficiency levels comparable to those found in biological systems.
In his career, Rao has a track record of entrepreneurial success, having sold his prior startup MosaicML to Databricks in 2023 for $1.3 billion. Additionally, he co-founded the machine learning platform Nervana Systems, which was acquired by Intel in 2016 for over $400 million.
