Ex-Databricks Exec Raising $1B for New AI Startup

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AI veteran Naveen Rao is raising $1 billion for his new venture, Unconventional, Inc., which aims to build a computer “as efficient as biology” with custom silicon and server infrastructure.
The round is reportedly led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Lightspeed, Lux Capital, and Databricks participating.
Rao previously founded MosaicML, acquired by Databricks in 2023 for $1.3 billion.

[kelson10]

Naveen Rao’s new project sounds like the next frontier — merging biology-inspired efficiency with custom AI hardware could redefine computing power and cost.
With Databricks and a16z backing him again, Unconventional, Inc. might become the MosaicML of the post-LLM era.

[jacson4]

A $1B raise for a startup still in stealth shows how hungry VCs are for breakthroughs beyond transformer models.
If Unconventional can approach biological efficiency, it could challenge Nvidia’s dominance and reshape the AI infrastructure stack.