Naveen Rao, former head of AI at Databricks, is raising US$1 billion at a US$5 billion valuation for his new startup, Unconventional Inc.

Andreessen Horowitz will lead the round, joined by Lightspeed, Lux Capital, and Databricks, according to Bloomberg.

Rao has already secured hundreds of millions and will begin building Unconventional while raising the rest in stages.

The company plans to create custom silicon chips and server infrastructure for AI, aiming to rival Nvidia.

Rao confirmed the company name on X, describing its mission as rethinking computer foundations to build intelligence as efficient as biology.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch