AI chip startup Blaize has gone public on the Nasdaq in a SPAC deal.
The company this week merged with BurTech Acquisition Corp., owned by Burkhan World Investments.
The deal valued Blaize at $1.2 billion and once closed, the chipmaker will have access to a $116 million convertible note and $36 million in additional funding.
Special purpose acquisition companies are shell companies that are listed on a stock market. Known as blank check companies, they are empty companies with large amounts of capital that list on the stock market specifically to merge with another company in the future. Such mergers allow earlier-stage companies to go public sooner and more cheaply than going for a traditional float solo.
The merger was further bolstered by an investment from the Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook Al Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates. Financial details of that investment have not been disclosed. Burkhan World Investments has headquarters in Abu Dhabi and Washington and holds investments in technology, finance, mining, real estate, media, and hospitality.
Founded in 2011 by former Intel engineers, to date Blaize has raised a total of $335 million from investors like Samsung and Mercedes-Benz. Headquartered in El Dorado Hills, California, the company manufactures AI chips for data center and Edge applications.
The company’s flagship product is its Blaize 1600 system-on-chip (SoC) which the company says has been optimized for machine learning workloads and can run AI models using less power than graphics cards. The chip is available in two form factors, an accelerator card that can connect up to 24 1600 chips and Pathfinder P1600 which combines one 1600 chip with two Arm CPUs.
“Today is an exciting milestone on Blaize’s journey of powering the next generation of computing,” said Dinakar Munagala, CEO of Blaize. “AI-powered Edge computing is the future due to its low power consumption, low latency, cost-effectiveness, and data privacy advantages. Blaize is well-positioned with our full-stack hardware and software solution purpose-built for edge computing.”
Blaize claims to have $400 million in deals in the pipeline, while TechCrunch reported that the company has signed a purchase order worth up to $104 million with an “unnamed EMEA defense entity.”