Oct 19 : Tenstorrent said on Monday it raised $1.5 billion in a late-stage funding round that valued the AI chip startup at $6.2 billion post-money, more than doubling its valuation from December 2024.
Here are some more details:
• The Santa Clara, California-based company said it would use the funding to scale production of its Galaxy servers, which combine dozens of its AI chips to power applications including chatbots, coding assistants and video generators.
• Tenstorrent develops AI chips and software using RISC-V, an open-source chip architecture that enables companies to design processors without license fees and reduce dependence on proprietary chip ecosystems such as Arm's
• The Series E round was led by Trace Capital and Innovation X. Other backers included Cathie Wood's ARK Invest, Sandisk, Morgan Stanley, T. Rowe Price and Tether Investments.
• Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller, a prominent chip architect, previously led Tesla's efforts to develop a self-driving chip for electric vehicles and held key design roles at Apple and AMD among others.
• The startup's last funding round raised more than $693 million in December 2024 at a $2 billion pre-money valuation, with Samsung Securities and AFW Partners leading the financing.