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▶ 10:27 · $UNCONVENTIONAL-AI · Naveen Rao's Unconventional AI builds neuromorphic chip prototype in 6 months using dynamical systems
episode briefing
Sequoia Capital

Why the Brain Computes 1,000,000x More Efficiently Than A GPU: Unconventional AI's Naveen Rao

2026-05-06 · 2 company · 3 thematic
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speakers
naveen rao

Neuroscientist and computer architect with 30 years experience; PhD in neuroscience; founded one of the first AI chip companies (Nervana, acquired by Intel); ran Mosaic ML (acquired by Databricks); built Databricks' AI platform; now building Unconventional AI to commercialize neuromorphic dynamical computing.

quote
“This is actual uh chip that we're going to be building this summer. So, we went from basically no team in January to a to a full prototype in 6 months and that's because of AI. So, this is what's really cool about not having baggage is you…”
—naveen rao
now playing · $UNCONVENTIONAL-AI
$NVDA···neutral· mediumnaveen rao
Nvidia's GPU power efficiency gains have stalled at incremental levels despite manufacturing improvements
While Nvidia dominates the matrix math accelerator market, the actual energy per flop with memory access has not meaningfully improved — only costs have dropped due to better manu…
$UNCONVENTIONAL-AIbullish· high· posnaveen rao
Naveen Rao's Unconventional AI builds neuromorphic chip prototype in 6 months using dynamical systems
Unconventional AI is developing a non-von Neumann computing architecture based on nonlinear dynamics and oscillatory coupling, achieving 1000x+ energy efficiency gains over GPUs b…