AI chipmaker Tenstorrent raises $100M from Hyundai and Samsung to compete with Nvidia’s chip

Canadian startup Tenstorrent has $100 million from the likes of Hyundai Motor Group, Samsung’s investment fund and Kia, among other investors, to compete with Nvidia’s dominance in supplying chips for artificial intelligence products such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
Led by ex-Tesla employee Jim Keller, the startup has raised $234.5 million to date and is currently valued at around $1 billion. In the latest round of funding, Tenstorrent received $30 million from Hyundai, $20 million from Kia, and $50 million from Samsung’s Catalyst Fund, along with other investors such as Fidelity Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, Epiq Capital, and Maverick Capital, etc.
The recently secured funding is structured in the form of debt, which would later be converted into equity. Essentially, this means the chipmaker will have to raise another round of equity financing to get a new valuation.
In a statement on the new investment, Hyundai said: “Hyundai Motor Group today announced a strategic investment in Tenstorrent, an artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor company based in Toronto, Canada, which will enable the group to integrate artificial intelligence into future Hyundai, Kia vehicles. and Genesis vehicles and other future mobilities, including robotics and advanced air mobility (AAM).
Founded in 2016, Tenstorrent manufactures its own AI chips while also selling its intellectual property and other technologies to help customers build their own AI chips. In addition to Nvidia’s data center challenge, Tenstorrent is also working on other uses for AI chips, such as a deal in May where the company will make chips that could be used in smart TVs.
Meanwhile, Keller, who took over the reins of the AI ​​chipmaker earlier this year, has previously made chips for the likes of Apple, Tesla and Intel. His tenure at Tenstorrent marks a return to the automotive technology sector.
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