What would you do if you weren’t afraid? You’d do it again but faster.

Twenty years ago, the first 275 employees of Facebook heard the same thing — they were told they were insane for believing in a young hotshot who had just snubbed Yahoo's billion-dollar offer. Everybody that they recruited was told by their friends to go to Google or Yahoo, but we all went because we believed that Facebook was the future.?

We believed in Mark and his rapidly growing once-in-a-generation team, and we believed in his mission. We all wanted to get on a magic bus to do the unimaginable.?

Meet Etched, Oceans' latest investment.

About a year ago, I got a call from Elio, one of the Oceans Scouts at Harvard. Elio and his two roommates laughed and told me they actually lived in Mark Zuckerberg’s old dorm room and sent me a video that I quickly forwarded to Mark, Boz, and Naomi Gleit. Shortly thereafter, I got a call that they found a team I simply had to meet, immediately. We all hopped on a zoom — And from Mark’s very room, I learned about Robert W. , Gavin Uberti , and the team at Etched, who were making the biggest bet in AI to date.

As early as 2006, when Facebook had only 20m active users, Mark created the mission to make the world more open and connected. 20 yrs later and 3b people access the platform. The scope, scale, and execution have been a once-in-a-generation journey. The team at Etched has an equally bold and inspiring vision. When you see hyperscalers breaking ground daily in search of more energy, you realize the world has an insatiable need for compute and that there needs to be a more effective and efficient way.??

Etched chips will unlock unparalleled benefits not just for the cloud/data centers but also for every company building AI applications. In turn, the total population will be able to access the benefits of AI. It's amazing to see a mission-driven opportunity tethered to such an incredible team, and this week's raise announcement of 120m is an incredible sign of confidence from some of the biggest investors.

What happens when AI models get 10x cheaper?

Looks like we’re about to find out.

It’s often stated that life has a funny way of repeating itself — 20 years later, here we are again. Our team at Oceans and and a number of our colleagues from the early FB team are now looking at Gavin (CEO), Robert (COO), and Mark (CTO) and we see the same potential. Etched’s vision is to democratize access to a faster, more affordable, and energy-efficient solution by giant orders of magnitude. Speed and cost hold every AI product back. Etched is bringing new hardware to solve this very problem.?

Today, most AI products can’t be built.

The models are too dumb, expensive, and slow. Sohu's (Etched's new chip) costs and speed advantages (20x faster!) will actually change the world. 15x lower cost-per-token means much smarter models, new products, and finally, AI products with a truly global scale coming soon.

But just as with so many other technological leaps—like the space race or nuclear technology—who leads the way in innovation matters. Geopolitically, it’s crucial for the US to maintain its competitive edge in AI. Specialized chips will play a necessary role here.

AI is bigger than any of us and will meaningfully benefit all of us.

That’s why Etched is committed to open-source principles and will make all of its software open-source, from drivers to kernels to the serving stack. Check out Gavin's memo for more details. This next once-in-a-generation team is proving at every milestone that this vision can become a reality.?

Oceans is a team that bets on teams to tackle the world's biggest opportunities.

The past 9 months have been a complete joy supporting the team at Etched.

To make a generational change, you need crazy people who've seen the movie before and who are ready to dream big and take on the world. That's why Oceans, Chris Kelly , Carolyn Everson , and dozens of other Facebook early employees have all jumped in to invest, advise and mentor the team at Etched; aligned around being bold, acting without fear, and building the most talented teams to challenge the large incumbents. Sound familiar??

We are proud co-investors with New York's top investors, including Primary Ventures, Michael Lazerow and Kass Lazerow from Velvet Sea Ventures, Galaxy Digital, and many other NYC strategic operators.?

We're not the only ones who will see this kind of dream and visionary experience. So, too, did Peter Thiel. There’s a reason Peter gave all three of them the Thiel Fellowship (the first time this has happened). This is a rock star team trying to do something so big that Top AI researchers and hardware engineers have left every major AI chip project to join Etched.? It's time!?

Of course, like any venture bet, there are massive risks, including incumbents such as Nvidia and AMD, and we all know the risks in early-stage ventures. However, the Facebook Mafia saw something that reminded them of when Facebook was the underdog taking on an entire ad industry, and they believe they’ve found their new rocket ship.

Congrats to the team at Etched on their 120m raise to take on the future of AI and be at the forefront and the challenger. As we know, it’s not about the money; it’s about attracting the best talent and executing to hit critical milestones, and fortunately, they have gotten the talent part right by surrounding themselves with some of the best in the industry.

Another company that Oceans is grateful to be part of their journey along with the 50+ others we have in our portfolio.

Want to learn more? Hit me up! [email protected]

Want to join their team? Check out their job board!