Cerebras Systems, an artificial intelligence chip specialist, raised $1bn in a funding round announced Wednesday, taking its valuation to $23.1bn. The deal marks a near tripling of its value in just over four months, following a similarly sized raise in September, when the company was valued at $8.1bn. The financing was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Benchmark, Coatue, AMD and 1789 Capital, a fund backed amongst others by Donald Trump Jr.

The fresh influx of capital underscores investors' sustained appetite for key players in AI infrastructure, as the global race for computing capacity accelerates. Cerebras' technology, built around "wafer-scale" chips designed for training and inference of large AI models, is drawing growing interest from strategic customers such as OpenAI, with which it recently signed a commercial agreement. The California start-up is now seen as a credible alternative to Nvidia, whose dominance is prompting many companies to diversify their suppliers.

While Nvidia reportedly approached Cerebras about a potential acquisition, the company declined discussions. That decision strengthens its positioning as an independent player in an increasingly concentrated market. The funding round is also the first since Cerebras shelved its initial public offering plans in October. In an environment where private capital remains plentiful, the company plans to keep growing while staying off public markets, in line with many AI-sector start-ups.