The Etched Sohu chip sets a new standard in AI, boasting 20 times the speed of Nvidia’s top GPUs, and promises groundbreaking advancements in transformer technology.
California-based startup Etched is causing a stir in the AI hardware industry with its new transformer ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) chip, Sohu.
Sohu is not just another chip, it’s a speed demon, claiming to be 20 times faster than Nvidia’s H100 GPU for running transformer models, such as ChatGPT, and ten times faster than Nvidia’s more powerful B200, according to company tests.
Founded by two Harvard dropouts, Etched aims to disrupt the AI chipset market dominated by Nvidia, whose H100 and B200 GPUs have driven its market capitalization past $3 trillion.
Unlike Nvidia’s versatile GPUs, Sohu is specialised in transformer AI models, which limits its use to specific applications like real-time translation and multimodal integration of text and images.
As of June 25, Etched had secured $120 million in funding and preorders worth “tens of millions of dollars.” The company has also partnered with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to fabricate its 4-nanometer chip, with production expected to ramp up in the coming year. The release timeline for Sohu remains uncertain, but the startup’s innovations could pave the way for new AI capabilities.
