- Tenstorrent positions itself as a viable alternative to Nvidia
- Startup plans to increase hiring for engineering positions after new funding
- Interoperability is a key requirement of Tenstorrent
AI chip startup Tenstorrent has received $700 million in funding, part of an investment round that values the company at $2.6 billion.
The investment was made by AFW Partners and Samsung Securities, including financing commitments LG Electronics, Fidelity and Bezos Expeditions, a former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
The company said the funding will play a key role in expanding its headcount, further developing its supply chain capabilities, and building an artificial intelligence training server to showcase its technology.
major expansion
Tenstorrent focuses on developing powerful, cost-effective chips specifically for artificial intelligence development. Notably, the company uses Open source Developments in technology that enable the move to the expensive High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) currently in use NVIDIA.
Likewise, it places a strong emphasis on interoperability with other vendors and has been a strong supporter of the open-standard RISC-V processor architecture.
It’s this aspect of the company’s operations that makes the Santa Clara-based company an attractive alternative to Nvidia, Chief Executive Jim Keller said.
“If you use HBMbecause Nvidia buys HBM the most and has a cost advantage. But they will never be able to lower the price as much as they can by building HBM into their products and sockets,” Keller said in a statement.
With Nvidia’s rapid rise in the global technology industry in recent years, companies have been trying to find alternatives to Nvidia, and Tenstorrent is one of many companies aiming to fill the gap.
In March 2024, Taalas, a Toronto-based AI chip startup, received $50 million in financing, again aiming to challenge the GPU-centric industry created by Nvidia’s dominance.
While Tenstorrent is still a relatively young company, it has already secured about $150 million in contracts and is expanding significantly.
The company’s first chips to hit the market were produced as part of a deal with GlobalFoundries. this Introducing Gray SkullTenstorrent’s RISC-V alternative is designed to be easier to program and extend.
Future chip families will be built through agreements with TSMC and Samsung. This includes the development of a 2nm AI accelerator, but specific details of a release date have not yet been determined.
In the long term, the company plans to release a new AI processor every year.
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