July 8 : AI chip startup SambaNova said on Wednesday it has raised $1 billion in a late-stage funding round led by General Atlantic at an $11 billion post-money valuation.The company makes custom chips, hardware systems and cloud services tailored for inference - the process by which models respond to user queries.Here are some details:• The Series F round included significant investment from Seligman Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates and Capital Group. • New and existing investors include A&E Investment, Assam Ventures, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Intel Capital and the Qatar Investment Authority.• SambaNova said it will use the proceeds to expand capacity, scale deployments worldwide and continue investing across chips, systems, software and full-stack AI infrastructure for