SambaNova
Updated in September, 2025
Headquarter: Palo Alto, California
Year Founded: 2017
Employees: ~500 | 2025
Business Status: Growth
Industry Sectors: AI infrastructure, enterprise AI platforms, government and public sector AI solutions, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and energy.
What is SambaNova?
SambaNova is an AI hardware and software company providing an integrated platform called Dataflow-as-a-Service, designed to simplify and accelerate AI development, training, and deployment. Its technology includes proprietary AI chips and a full software stack that enables enterprises to run large AI models efficiently with high performance and energy efficiency.
Why do we like it?
SambaNova stands out for its fully integrated approach that combines custom AI chips with optimized software, enabling enterprises to handle multiple complex AI workloads simultaneously while reducing costs and operational complexity. Its subscription model and professional services improve customer retention, and strategic partnerships enhance market reach. The platform supports very large AI models and efficiently processes sparse data, key advantages in enterprise AI applications.
What does Sambanova?
SambaNova designs and sells AI hardware systems (DataScale) powered by custom chips and delivers AI infrastructure via a subscription-based Dataflow-as-a-Service platform. It offers professional services for data preparation, model training, and optimization, enabling enterprises in sectors like finance, healthcare, and government to deploy AI models for training and inference on-premises or via the cloud.
Market Opportunity
SambaNova’s market opportunity lies in the rapidly growing AI hardware and AI infrastructure space, driven by increasing demand for specialized AI chips and high-performance computing for large AI models and generative AI workloads. The specialized AI chip market is projected to reach around $83.9 billion by 2027, growing at over 35% CAGR, while the broader AI hardware market is estimated at approximately $60.6 billion in 2025 and expected to grow to over $231 billion by 2035. SambaNova targets enterprise AI infrastructure, focusing on sectors like finance, healthcare, government, and manufacturing, with over 30 enterprise customers and strong industry partnerships. The global AI infrastructure market is also forecast growth from around $55.8 billion in 2023 to more than $300 billion by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate of more than 20%. SambaNova’s strategic positioning as a provider of integrated hardware and software AI platforms, combined with geopolitical advantages and ecosystem partnerships, gives it significant growth potential within this multi-hundred billion dollar expanding market.
Most Recent Financing Status
SambaNova’s most recent financing was a Series D round in April 2021, raising $676 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund, valuing the company over $5 billion. Since then, there was a secondary market round in October 2023 for liquidity, with total funding exceeding $1.1 billion.
SambaNova Stock Price
SambaNova is a private company, not publicly traded. However, on secondary markets for private shares, the late September 2025 price is approximately $19 per share. This price is derived for private transactions restricted to accredited investors.
Courtesy of Caplight
SambaNova Valuation
SambaNova's valuation is decreasing while others are rising due to several factors:
Shift in Business Focus: SambaNova pivoted away from AI training workloads to focus solely on AI inference in 2025. This strategic shift reflects challenges and competitive pressures in capturing training market share, which has higher growth potential and valuation multiples compared to inference.
Workforce Reduction: The company laid off approximately 15% of its workforce in early 2025, signaling cost-cutting and operational restructuring efforts that may have affected investor sentiment.
As of 2025, SambaNova Systems’ top management has remained stable. Rodrigo Liang continues to serve as the CEO and Co-Founder since the company's founding in 2017. There have been no major CEO or executive leadership changes reported this year. The management team continues to lead SambaNova through its strategic pivot to AI inference and enterprise AI infrastructure.
SambaNova Notable Investors
Notable investors in SambaNova include some of the top global institutional and venture capital firms such as America 2030, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, BlackRock, Intel Capital, GV (Google Ventures), Walden International, Temasek, GIC, and Redline Capital. These investors have supported multiple funding rounds, including SambaNova's significant $676 million Series D in 2021, which valued the company over $5 billion. This strong backing from leading investors highlights confidence in SambaNova’s AI hardware and enterprise AI platform technology.
SambaNova Strategic Hedge
SambaNova's strategic hedge centers on its fully integrated approach combining custom AI hardware, optimized software, and a subscription-based Dataflow-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform. This approach allows rapid deployment of AI inference with unmatched energy efficiency and performance, targeting enterprise and government customers with large-scale AI needs. By focusing on inference rather than training, SambaNova positions itself to meet the soaring demand for cost-effective, high-throughput AI services.
Key strategic advantages include:
Proprietary reconfigurable dataflow architecture enabling flexible, energy-efficient AI workloads.
Fast deployment turnkey AI inference solutions that dramatically reduce time-to-market for data centers.
A modular, scalable design that supports growing AI workloads without costly infrastructure overhauls.
Collaborations and partnerships globally to expand market presence and improve energy efficiency.
Prioritizing enterprise-grade and sovereign AI deployments where security, performance, and operational simplicity matter most.
This hedge differentiates SambaNova from general-purpose GPU providers by focusing on specialized, vertically integrated solutions that lower the total cost of ownership and accelerate AI model deployment at scale.
SambaNova Latest News
Stay up-to-date with all the latest news pertaining to OpenAI stock, IPO, and investment opportunity. By clicking here, you'll gain access to real-time updates and in-depth analysis from market experts, empowering you to make informed decisions about your investment journey. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just getting started, our platform is tailored to provide you with all the crucial information you need to navigate the thrilling world of the stock market and IPOs. Dive in and keep your finger on the pulse of the financial markets.
The recent revelation by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, that the company is currently losing money on its $200 per month ChatGPT Pro subscriptions is a stark reminder of the financial tightrope that innovation in AI often requires. This admission was made in a candid social media post where Altman described the situation as an "insane thing," highlighting how the usage of the Pro plan has exceeded expectations, leading to unexpectedly high operational costs.