A startup founded by acclaimed AI researcher Anna Patterson is raising cash to enter an industrywide quest to solve the AI chip shortage with better infrastructure.
NEA is leading the deal for Ceramic, which is developing software to optimize how large language models use chips, according to three people with knowledge of the deal. The funding round is nearing a close at $10 million on a $60 million post-money valuation, one of the people said.
Ceramic, which Patterson founded in early 2024, is raising a round largely to fund its research and development of an orchestration layer for graphics processing units, or GPUs, the people said. Patterson is most well-known in Silicon Valley for her long tenure at Google, including as VP of engineering for AI, and for setting up Google’s fund for backing early-stage AI companies, Gradient Ventures.
Patterson and NEA did not respond to PitchBook’s requests for comment.
GPUs, the semiconductors powering large language models like OpenAI‘s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, have been in high demand since the AI boom took off nearly two years ago.
Even as more VCs sound the alarm of an AI hype bubble, seed-stage AI startups with premier founding teams are still attracting expensive price tags as competing term sheets bid up companies.
Patterson has worked on cutting-edge AI research for over two decades, including as a research scientist at Stanford alongside John McCarthy, a professor who has been hailed as one of the founders of AI.
Patterson, who has been named one of the world’s eight leading women in AI by Fortune Magazine, first joined Google in 2004 and has worked on teams that scaled Android and launched Google Play.
She briefly left Google in 2007 to co-found Cuil, a search engine competitor, with her husband Tom Costello, another Google alum. Costello is also working with Patterson on Ceramic, according to a person with knowledge of the company.
After Cuil shut down in 2010, Patterson rejoined Google where she led the company’s AI product integration efforts. In 2017, she launched Gradient Ventures, which has backed startups including Writer, Dyndrite, and Labelbox. She left the firm in November 2023.
Featured image of Anna Patterson by Steve Jennings/Getty Images
