SambaNova Systems vs Graphcore

By valuation, SambaNova Systems is the larger company at $1.6B versus $500M — a 3.2x difference. Size can also be measured by team: SambaNova Systems employs 500 people while Graphcore has 500-1000 employees.

SambaNova Systems has raised more in total funding at $1.5B, compared to Graphcore's $700M — a gap of $790M. Combined, the two companies have completed 8 known funding rounds.

Graphcore leads with an Awaira Score of 85/100, while SambaNova Systems sits at 62/100. That 23-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

SambaNova Systems was founded by Rodrigo Liang in 2017. Graphcore was founded by Nigel Toon in 2016. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

SambaNova Systems: SambaNova Systems is an AI infrastructure company founded in 2017 that develops specialized hardware and software platforms for enterprise AI workloads. The company designs custom processors and system architectures optimized for machine learning training and inference, focusing on delivering higher performance and energy efficiency compared to general-purpose computing solutions. SambaNova's technology stack includes proprietary chip designs and a software compiler that adapts AI models to their hardware architecture. The company targets large enterprises and cloud providers seeking to optimize AI model deployment and reduce computational costs. SambaNova has secured substantial venture funding, positioning it among well-capitalized AI infrastructure startups. The company competes in the specialized AI chip market alongside vendors like Cerebras, Graphcore, and established players including NVIDIA. SambaNova's approach emphasizes dataflow-optimized architectures rather than traditional GPU designs. The company has demonstrated traction with enterprise customers exploring alternatives to standard AI infrastructure, though specific customer names and deployment scale details remain largely confidential. Its growth trajectory reflects the broader market expansion for specialized AI compute solutions as enterprises scale AI applications across their organizations. SambaNova develops dataflow-optimized processors and software specifically engineered to maximize AI workload efficiency, differentiating itself through specialized chip architecture rather than general-purpose computing. Graphcore: Graphcore designs the Intelligence Processing Unit, a processor architecture built specifically for machine learning workloads, offering a hardware alternative to NVIDIA GPUs for AI model training and inference. The Bristol-based company developed the IPU around a bulk synchronous parallel computation model that distributes model parameters across thousands of processor cores with local memory, achieving high efficiency for sparse and irregular neural network computations that GPUs handle inefficiently.\n\nThe company raised approximately $700 million across six funding rounds including a Series E that valued it at approximately $2.8 billion, with investors including Sequoia Capital, Microsoft, and Samsung Ventures. Graphcore processors are deployed in research institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, and the Rosalind Franklin Institute, as well as commercial AI platforms. The company has shipped multiple IPU generations including the MK2 IPU and Bow IPU, with the Colossus processor and IPU-POD system providing data centre scale AI compute.\n\nGraphcore competes directly against NVIDIA in the AI accelerator market, alongside AMD, Intel Gaudi, and other AI chip startups including Cerebras, SambaNova, and Groq. The AI accelerator market is projected to exceed $100 billion by 2027, driven by demand for model training compute. Graphcore faces the dominant position of NVIDIA and its CUDA software ecosystem as the primary barrier to adoption, requiring significant software investment to match the maturity of CUDA tooling that researchers and engineers have relied on for over a decade.

Graphcore got there first, launching in 2016 — that's 1 year of extra runway. SambaNova Systems didn't arrive until 2017. In AI, that kind of head start means more training data, deeper customer relationships, and a bigger talent moat.

SambaNova Systems has about 500 employees; Graphcore has about 500-1000. A bigger team usually means more revenue or heavier VC backing, but in AI, small teams can build at massive scale.

Yes — they're direct rivals. Both SambaNova Systems and Graphcore compete in AI Infrastructure, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.