Etched, a San Jose‑based artificial‑intelligence inference chip startup founded in 2022 by dropouts Gavin Uberti, Chris Zhu and Robert Wachen, is reportedly in discussions to raise new capital at a valuation of approximately $20 billion, which represents a four‑fold increase over its prior valuation. The proposed financing is being led by existing investor Jane Street, while a separate round is being headed by Sequoia Capital that would value the company at about $10 billion; neither transaction has been closed and the terms remain subject to change. Etched is currently testing its initial chip design and has indicated that prospective customers have expressed interest amounting to roughly $1 billion in demand, although the firm has not yet commenced large‑scale commercial deliveries. Earlier investors in the four‑year‑old company include Stripes, Peter Thiel, Ribbit Capital and Primary Venture Partners. The company’s approach focuses on specialized inference chips, differentiating it from Nvidia’s graphics processing units that serve both training and inference workloads. Nvidia remains the dominant supplier of processors for AI systems, but demand for alternative solutions with lower inference costs and workload‑specific optimization has grown, prompting several startups—including Cerebras Systems, Groq, SambaNova Systems and UK‑based Fractile—to pursue similar opportunities. If the $20 billion valuation materialises, Etched would rank among the world’s most highly valued private semiconductor startups before its first chip has been commercially validated.