Posted:
4:24 PM PST · December 9, 2025
Image Credits:Naveen Rao
Naveen Rao, the former head of AI at Databricks, has raised $475 million in seed capital at a $4.5 billion valuation for his new startup, Unconventional AI.
The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Ventures, with participation from Lux Capital and DCVC. The funding is a first installment toward the goal of up to $1 billion for the round, Rao told Bloomberg.
TechCrunch was first to report, back in October, that Unconventional AI was seeking this mega funding for Rao’s new startup, although the final valuation is marginally lower than the $5 billion sources told us he was seeking. If he does eventually raise as much as $1 billion, we’ll see how that impacts his company’s value.
Unconventional AI is set on building a new, energy-efficient computer for AI. Rao previously wrote on X that his goal is to create a computer that is “as efficient as biology.”
Databricks acquired Rao’s previous startup, MosaicML in 2023, for $1.3 billion. Prior to MosaicML, Rao co-founded the machine learning platform Nervana Systems, which Intel Corp. acquired in 2016 for reportedly more than $400 million.
Topics
a16z, AI, Databricks, Hardware, In Brief, lightspeed, seed capital, Startups
Dates TBD
Locations TBA
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