SambaNova introduces SN50 chip, secures $350m for expansion

California-based SambaNova has introduced its latest AI chip, the SN50, designed for enterprise-scale agentic AI deployments, with shipments expected to begin later this year.

The launch comes after a Series E funding round in which the company raised more than $350m to support SN50 manufacturing and cloud expansion.

From a technical perspective, the SN50 builds on SambaNova’s Reconfigurable Data Unit (RDU) architecture. SambaNova claims the chip delivers five times the compute performance per accelerator and four times the network bandwidth compared to the previous generation.

The interconnect architecture supports up to 256 accelerators linked by a multi-terabyte-per-second fabric. According to the company, this facilitates deployment of models exceeding ten trillion parameters and context lengths beyond ten million tokens.

Enterprises can run large language models and agentic workflows at scale with higher throughput, reduced latency, and controlled infrastructure costs, SambaNova said.

SambaNova claims the SN50 achieves three times lower total cost of ownership compared to other solutions, while supporting thousands of concurrent sessions with consistent performance metrics. Agentic caching and a three-tier memory system are included to optimise hardware utilisation in environments running multiple models simultaneously.

The new chip is designed for production environments where batch size, latency sensitivity, and resource efficiency are critical factors.

The SN50 will be first deployed at SoftBank’s next-generation AI data centres in Japan.

The initial rollout will focus on delivering low-latency inference for sovereign and enterprise clients across Asia-Pacific. This includes support for both open-source and proprietary frontier models that require strict performance standards.

SambaNova has an existing relationship with SoftBank, which currently operates SambaCloud clusters serving developers in the region.

SoftBank vice president and technology unit data platform strategy division head Hironobu Tamba said: “With SN50, we are building an AI inference fabric for Japan that can serve our customers and partners with the speed, resiliency and sovereignty they expect from SoftBank.

“By standardising on SN50, we gain the ability to deliver world‑class AI services on our own terms — with the performance of the best GPU clusters, but with far better economics and control.”

Additionally, SambaNova has entered into a multi-year collaboration with Intel.

The partnership aims to provide high-performance, cost-efficient AI inference infrastructure for enterprises, service providers, and government organisations by integrating SambaNova’s systems with Intel’s CPUs, accelerators, and networking technology.

It encompasses joint development of AI cloud services built on Intel Xeon-based infrastructure optimised for large language and multimodal models. Deployment will leverage reference architectures and blueprints involving both companies’ products to accelerate adoption through system integrators and software vendors.

Co-selling and co-marketing via Intel’s global partner network are expected to drive wider adoption across sectors requiring advanced inference solutions.

As part of the collaboration, Intel plans to make a direct investment in SambaNova and will participate in joint go-to-market activities. In late 2025, reports surfaced in the media that Intel was pursuing acquisition of the AI chip company for a consideration of around $1.6bn, inclusive of debt.

SambaNova co‑founder and CEO Rodrigo Liang said: “AI is no longer a contest to build the biggest model.

“With the SN50 and our deep collaboration with Intel, the real race is about who can light up entire data centers with AI agents that answer instantly, never stall, and do it at a cost that turns AI from an experiment into the most profitable engine in the cloud.”

Investment from the Series E round will fund further SN50 manufacturing scale-up, expansion of SambaCloud cloud services, and deeper software integration for large enterprise clients globally.

Vista Equity Partners and Cambium Capital led the funding round, joined by Intel Capital as well as new investors such as Assam Ventures, Gulf Energy, Battery Ventures, Saudi First Data, Mayfield Capital, Seligman Ventures, and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates.

Existing backers including A&E, Atlantic Bridge, 8Square, GV, BlackRock, Nepenthe, Nuri Capital and Redline Capital also participated.

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