Overview
- SambaNova raised $350 million in a Series E led by Vista Equity Partners and Cambium Capital, with Intel Capital participating.
- The companies plan a multi‑year collaboration to deliver rack‑level solutions pairing SambaNova accelerators with Intel Xeon CPUs as well as Intel GPUs, networking and storage.
- SambaNova unveiled the SN50 accelerator and claims up to 5x faster performance and roughly 3x better efficiency than Nvidia’s B200 for inference, figures that await independent validation, with systems slated to ship in the second half of 2026.
- SoftBank will be the first customer to deploy SN50 in next‑generation AI data centers in Japan.
- Reuters reports Intel’s prior ~$1.6 billion acquisition talks with SambaNova stalled; Intel says the new pact complements its data‑center GPU roadmap, and Intel CEO and SambaNova chairman Lip‑Bu Tan recused himself from discussions.