AI chip startup Etched recently emerged from stealth mode, announcing that it has raised a cumulative total of $800 million in funding, secured customer contracts exceeding $1 billion, and plans to ship rack-level inference systems this summer. The company's latest funding round took place in December last year, raising $500 million and valuing the company at $5 billion post-investment. This round was led by Stripes, with participation from Peter Thiel and others, including Jane Street, which has now invested over $100 million in total. Founded in 2022 by Harvard dropouts Gavin Uberti and Robert Wachen, Etched has developed the Sohu chip specifically designed for Transformer models, utilizing TSMC's N4P process and achieving first-pass silicon success with its A0 chip. Currently, the company is validating its first rack-level product with customers. Etched's team has grown to over 400 members, with many hailing from renowned companies such as NVIDIA and Broadcom. The company maintains its headquarters, data center, and prototype lab in San Jose, along with a factory in Taiwan, aiming to achieve gigawatt-scale production capacity by 2027. As one of the few startups offering complete rack systems, Etched is benefiting from the current shift in the AI industry's focus toward inference, with the inference chip market attracting significant capital attention.