Naveen Rao Unconventional: A $5B bet on brain-like AI chips

Naveen Rao, the serial AI entrepreneur who sold his last company MosaicML to Databricks for $1.3 billion, is back with another “big swing.” This time, he’s not just building software; he’s trying to reinvent the computer itself.

Rao announced his new venture, Unconventional Inc., on X.com, declaring his mission to build “a new substrate for intelligence that is as efficient as biology.” The goal, he wrote, is “Brain Scale Efficiency without the biological baggage!” This isn’t just another chip startup. It’s a moonshot attempt to solve the single biggest problem in AI: the astronomical and ever-growing cost of computation.

To fuel this ambition, Naveen Rao’s Unconventional is reportedly targeting a staggering $1 billion funding round at a $5 billion valuation. The venture already has heavyweight backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, and Lux Capital, with a strategic investment from Databricks, where Rao is transitioning to an advisory role after leading its AI division.

This move marks Rao’s third major play in the AI infrastructure space, following Nervana (acquired by Intel) and MosaicML. While MosaicML focused on making AI model training more efficient on existing hardware, Unconventional is a direct assault on the hardware itself, placing it in a head-on collision course with Nvidia.

A Third Act Against the Chip Giants

Rao’s career trajectory gives him a unique perspective. After selling his first hardware startup, Nervana, to Intel, he moved up the stack to solve software and efficiency problems at MosaicML. There, he saw firsthand how the limitations of today’s silicon architectures create a ceiling for AI development. Now, he’s returning to the foundational layer with a plan to build a completely new type of computer.

The industry is littered with the ghosts of failed Nvidia competitors, but Rao’s track record of building and selling high-value companies has earned him immense credibility. His strategy of tackling the industry’s most critical bottlenecks—first with efficient training software, now with hyper-efficient hardware—is a clear and compelling narrative for investors.

If successful, Unconventional Inc. could fundamentally reset the economics of artificial intelligence, making today’s massive data centers look like relics. But it’s a high-risk, high-reward gambit. For an industry desperate for alternatives to Nvidia’s dominance, Naveen Rao’s Unconventional is one of the boldest and most closely watched hardware bets in years.