AI Startups Raise More Than $2 Billion for Chips, Computing and Legal Software

Three AI startups raised more than $2 billion across financings for inference hardware, energy-efficient computing research and legal software, showing private investors backing distinct parts of the AI market.

Etched raised $700 million at a $21 billion valuation on Aug. 18, with Jane Street leading the round. The financing followed Etched’s July 23 announcement of a $300 million Series C at a $10.3 billion valuation. The startup builds hardware for AI inference, the process of running a trained model to generate outputs.

Etched shipped its first rack to Jane Street in July and secured more than $1 billion in customer contracts. Jane Street said, “We tested the chip and are pleased with the early results.” TokenPost previously covered preliminary bids that valued Etched at up to $50 billion.

Unconventional AI announced a $475 million seed round at a $4.5 billion valuation on Dec. 8, 2025. Lightspeed and Andreessen Horowitz led the financing. The company’s stated goal is to make computing more energy-efficient.

Legora raised $550 million in a Series D at a $5.55 billion valuation on March 10, then added a $50 million extension on April 30. The extension brought the round to $600 million and the valuation to $5.6 billion. Atlassian and NVentures joined the extension.

On April 2, Legora surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), a measure of recurring revenue projected over a year, and had more than 1,000 customers. That milestone came less than 18 months after the company’s general launch. In October, more than 130,000 legal professionals were using its software at over 2,100 law firms and in-house legal teams across more than 80 markets. Its tools cover legal research, document review and drafting.

The companies disclosed different measures of progress: a hardware delivery and customer contracts for Etched, a computing research goal for Unconventional AI, and revenue and customer adoption for Legora.