This week, AI chipmaker Cerebras Systems announced that it raised $1 billion in fresh capital at a valuation of $23 billion ' a nearly threefold increase from the $8.1 billion valuation the Nvidia rival had reached just six months earlier. While the round was led by Tiger Global, a huge part of the new capital came from one of the company's earliest backers: Benchmark Capital. The prominent Silicon Valley firm invested at least $225 million in Cerebras' latest round, according to a person familiar with the deal. Benchmark first bet on 10-year-old Cerebras when it led the startup's $27 million Series A in 2016. Since Benchmark deliberately keeps its funds under $450 million, the firm raised two separate vehicles, both called 'Benchmark Infrastructure,' according to regulatory filings. According to the person familiar with the deal, these vehicles were created specifically to fund the Cerebras investment. What sets Cerebras apart is the sheer physical scale of its processors. The...
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