SambaNova vs General Compute

SambaNova builds the RDU chip and runs SambaCloud. General Compute is a cloud that puts SambaNova and other ASICs behind one API for decode.

By The Subconscious Team · Updated October 27, 2026

SambaNova vs General Compute: key differences

SambaNova designs its own RDU and serves MiniMax M3, MiniMax M2.7, DeepSeek and GPT-OSS 120B on SambaCloud, with SemiAnalysis measuring about 800 tokens per second on MiniMax M2.7 on an SN50 rack. GPT-OSS 120B costs $0.22 in and $0.59 out per million tokens. General Compute is a customer of that silicon. It runs prefill on NVIDIA GPUs and decode on ASICs from SambaNova, Cerebras, Positron AI and d-Matrix. It serves GPT-OSS 120B at $0.21 in and $0.79 out and MiniMax M2.7 at $0.28 in and $1.20 out, and reports over 1,000 tokens per second on GPT-OSS 120B in its own benchmark.

SambaNova is the pick for buying from the chip maker directly, for the 1M context on MiniMax M3 in preview, and for neoclouds that want SN50 racks of their own. General Compute fits teams that want ASIC speed without betting on one chip vendor, plus private fine-tuned checkpoints and tokens-per-second SLAs. Both use the same split of GPU prefill and ASIC decode.

What SambaNova and General Compute do

SambaNova

SambaNova designs its own inference chip, the Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit, and sells fast tokens on large open models through SambaCloud. The RDU maps the model graph onto the chip to cut trips to off-chip memory. A three-tier memory design of SRAM, HBM and bulk DRAM lets one system host very large models and hot swap between several of them in milliseconds. SambaCloud serves models like MiniMax M3 (in preview with a 1M context), MiniMax M2.7, DeepSeek, Gemma 4 31B and GPT-OSS 120B, with speeds reported by Artificial Analysis.

Example models: MiniMax M3, MiniMax M2.7, GPT-OSS 120B

Full SambaNova profile

General Compute

General Compute is a San Francisco inference cloud built on alternative chips. It splits each request across hardware, with NVIDIA GPUs handling prefill and ASICs from Cerebras, SambaNova, Positron AI and d-Matrix handling decode. In its own open benchmark on GPT-OSS 120B it measured 1,025 to 1,234 output tokens per second against 100 to 121 on an unnamed GPU cloud, and up to 16.2x faster end to end. Founders Finn Puklowski and Jason Goodison raised a $15M seed led by FUSE, an up to $400M debt facility from Upper90 and, on October 27, 2026, a $100M Series A co-led by Blackbird and Abstract.

Example models: MiniMax M2.7, DeepSeek V3.2, GPT-OSS 120B

Full General Compute profile

Should you choose SambaNova or General Compute?

SambaNova

Choose SambaNova for

Buying direct from the chip maker
Long context on MiniMax M3
Racks for neoclouds

General Compute

Choose General Compute for

Decode across several ASIC vendors
Private fine-tuned checkpoints
Tokens-per-second SLAs

SambaNova vs General Compute at a glance

Attribute	SambaNova	General Compute
Model access	Open weights	Open weights
Flagship models	MiniMax M3, MiniMax M2.7, GPT-OSS 120B	MiniMax M2.7, DeepSeek V3.2, GPT-OSS 120B
Speed	~800 tok/s on MiniMax M2.7 (SN50, SemiAnalysis)	1,000+ tok/s on GPT-OSS 120B (vendor)
Price	$0.22 in, $0.59 out (GPT-OSS 120B)	$0.21–$0.28 in, $0.38–$1.20 out per 1M
Customization	Unknown	Custom LoRA and fine-tuned checkpoints
Deployment	SambaCloud, racks for neoclouds	Serverless API, dedicated racks, bare metal
Long context	Up to 1M (MiniMax M3, preview)	192K (MiniMax M2.7)

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between SambaNova and General Compute?

SambaNova builds the RDU chip and runs SambaCloud. General Compute is a cloud that puts SambaNova and other ASICs behind one API for decode.

When should I choose SambaNova over General Compute?

Buying direct from the chip maker; Long context on MiniMax M3; Racks for neoclouds.

When should I choose General Compute over SambaNova?

Decode across several ASIC vendors; Private fine-tuned checkpoints; Tokens-per-second SLAs.

Is SambaNova or General Compute cheaper?

SambaNova: $0.22 in, $0.59 out (GPT-OSS 120B). General Compute: $0.21–$0.28 in, $0.38–$1.20 out per 1M. The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

Which has more context, SambaNova or General Compute?

SambaNova: Up to 1M (MiniMax M3, preview). General Compute: 192K (MiniMax M2.7).

Related comparisons

Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious. Our inference stack treats a long-horizon trace as the primary workload, so speed, cost, and accuracy hold up deep into the trace.

Subconscious vs SambaNova Subconscious vs General Compute