Positron AI
Lovelock, US · Founded 2023 · Delaware corporation · 22 known investors
Positron builds purpose-built hardware and inference accelerator silicon for running Transformer-based generative AI models, offering inference appliances that map HuggingFace Transformers models onto the hardware and expose an OpenAI API-compliant endpoint. Its products target AI infrastructure for high-performance, low-power model inference at scale.
Founders & leadership
Positron AI was founded in 2023 by Thomas Sohmers, Barrett Woodside, and Edward Kmett.
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Thomas SohmersinFounder and CTOThomas Sohmers is co-founder and CTO of Positron AI, a fabless semiconductor company building chips and systems optimized for high memory capacity and bandwidth for generative AI inference. He previously founded two fabless semiconductor startups—REX Computing (energy-efficient DSP processors) and Terapute Technologies (cryptocurrency ASICs)—leading processor and ASIC architecture, and served as Principal Hardware Architect at Lambda, where he designed and built out an 800-GPU datacenter for its cloud GPU service.
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Barrett WoodsideFounder
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Edward KmettinFounder and Chief ScientistEdward Kmett is the founder of Positron AI, which builds hardware and inference accelerator silicon for running Transformer-based generative AI models. He has worked extensively in Haskell since 2006, served as founding chair of the Haskell core libraries committee, and sits on the boards of the Topos Institute and the Haskell Foundation.
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Mitesh AgrawalExecutive
Board
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Robert ReidBoard director
Investors · 22
Asimov VenturesNew York City
Banyan VenturesNew Yorkvia Sam Awrabi · inferred
Caucasus VenturesBaku · $50K – $2.5Mvia Mammad Karim · inferred
Ineffable VenturesStamfordvia Jared Kasner · inferred
Invariantes FundGuatemala City
NZVCAuckland
Oakseed Venturesvia Chee-We Ng · inferred
UnlessBoulder
VeronorteMedellín
1517reportedTelluride · $50K – $1M
ARMreported · 3 sourcesLagos
Atreides Managementreported · 3 sourcesBoston
Flume Venturesreported · 2 sourcesIncline Village
Forma CapitalreportedLos Angelesvia Ari Schottenstein · board
Qatar Investment Authorityreported · 2 sourcesDoha
Valor Equity Partnersreported · 2 sourcesChicago
Also in the syndicate · 6
ARENA Private WealthleadDFJ GrowthHelenaJump TradingleadResilience ReserveSemiAnalysis
Reported raises · per SEC filings
Form D private placements$309M disclosed across 2 rounds · 2025–2026
▶$233.9MraisedMay 2026 · 55 investors · OtherRule 506(b)
▶$233.9MraisedMay 2026 · 55 investors · Other
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- Robert ReidDirector
- Thomas SohmersExecutive Officer, Director
- Mitesh AgrawalExecutive Officer, Director
- Ari SchottensteinDirector
- Offering amount
- $233.9M
- Amount sold
- $233.9M
- First sale
- Jan 2026
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2023
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
▶$75.1MraisedJul 2025 · 95 investors · OtherRule 506(b)
▶$75.1MraisedJul 2025 · 95 investors · Other
Rule 506(b)Officers, directors & promoters on the filing
- Mitesh AgrawalExecutive Officer, Director
- Robert ReidDirector
- Thomas SohmersExecutive Officer, Director
- Offering amount
- $76.2M
- Amount sold
- $75.1M
- First sale
- Jun 2025
- Incorporated
- Corporation, Delaware, 2023
- Federal exemptions
- 06b
Source: SEC EDGAR Form D. Amounts as filed; amended filings shown once at their latest values.
Competitors · 2
by search overlap
Posit17 shared keywordsPosit (formerly RStudio) develops open-source and commercial software for data science, scientific research, and technical communication, including the RStudio and Positron IDEs, Quarto, Shiny, the tidyverse, and AI/LLM tooling that support R, Python, and SQL. It serves data scientists, researchers, and enterprise teams, and operates as a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation and Certified B Corporation.
Startuphub11 shared keywordsStartupHub is a searchable directory and intelligence platform that tracks startups, investors, founders, funding rounds, patents, and research across the AI ecosystem, using AI agents to detect signals like funding, hiring, launches, and stealth-company activity. It serves investors, founders, sales teams, competitive intelligence, recruiting, and corporate development users, offering watchlists, alerts, market maps, email finding, and a developer API.
Companies competing with Positron AI for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Positron to Raise $750 Million at a $5 Billion Valuation | Silicon Valley Investclubsiliconvalleyinvestclub.com · Jul 2026
Positron AI in Talks to Raise $750M to Challenge Nvidia in AI Inference Hardware | KuCoinkucoin.com · Jul 2026
AI inferencing startup Positron AI raises $230 million to develop chips 'to rival Nvidia' - DCDdatacenterdynamics.com · Jun 2026Frequently asked questions
- What does Positron AI do?
- Positron builds purpose-built hardware and inference accelerator silicon for running Transformer-based generative AI models, offering inference appliances that map HuggingFace Transformers models onto the hardware and expose an OpenAI API-compliant endpoint. Its products target AI infrastructure for high-performance, low-power model inference at scale.
- Who founded Positron AI?
- Positron AI was founded by Thomas Sohmers, Barrett Woodside, Edward Kmett in 2023.
- Who are Positron AI's investors?
- Positron AI's investors include Asimov Ventures, Banyan Ventures, Caucasus Ventures, Ineffable Ventures, Invariantes Fund, NZVC, Oakseed Ventures, Unless and 8 more.
- How much funding has Positron AI raised?
- Positron AI has disclosed $309M raised across 2 rounds.
- Where is Positron AI headquartered?
- Positron AI is headquartered in Lovelock, US.