Bezos Joins with Samsung to Lead $700M Funding to Propel Open-Source AI Chip Innovation

Jeff Bezos and Samsung have joined forces in a $700 million funding round for Tenstorrent, an AI chip startup aiming to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the market, valuing the company at $2.6 billion. Led by AFW Partners and Samsung Securities, the funding also attracted LG Electronics, Fidelity and other prominent investors. Tenstorrent, led by semiconductor pioneer Jim Keller, plans to use the funds to expand its engineering team, strengthen its global supply chain, and build AI training servers to showcase its innovative technology.

Tenstorrent’s strategy, as reported in finance.yahoo.com, is to create cost-efficient AI chips by avoiding Nvidia’s reliance on expensive high-bandwidth memory (HBM). Instead, the startup focuses on open-source and interoperable technology, which it believes will enable greater collaboration and attract top engineering talent. By leveraging RISC-V, an open standard for logic processors, Tenstorrent offers an alternative to proprietary chip designs like those from Arm Holdings, a move that Keller argues will build a broader platform for innovation.

Despite its ambitious goals, Tenstorrent has much to prove, with $150 million in customer contracts to date, a figure dwarfed by Nvidia’s multibillion-dollar quarterly data center revenues. The company plans to release new AI processors every two years, aiming to compete with Nvidia’s annual refresh cycle. Tenstorrent’s latest chips are being developed with partners like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics, targeting cutting-edge 2-nanometer fabrication technology.

This funding round has drawn investments from a diverse range of backers, including Export Development Canada, Hyundai Motor Group, and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, among others. With its focus on affordability and interoperability, Tenstorrent aims to position itself as a viable alternative to Nvidia, offering developers more flexibility while advancing the next generation of AI chip technology.

read more at finance.yahoo.com