Tenstorrent - To Chip Away Market Share from Nvidia?

• Tenstorrent is an AI chip company headed up by its CEO Jim Keller, a chip design legend who has previously worked at AMD, Apple, Intel, and Tesla.

• Tenstorrent has received numerous funding from major Korean conglomerates including Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung.

• According to Tenstorrent, its Galaxy systems are nearly 1/3 less expensive than Nvidia's DGX system AI servers.

Photo by BoliviaInteligente on Unsplash

Tenstorrent is an AI chip company headed up by its CEO Jim Keller, a chip design legend who previously worked at AMD, Apple, Intel, and Tesla. Jim Keller led the design of Apple's A-series chips and AMD's Ryzen CPUs. Keller was the lead architect of the AMD K8 microarchitecture and was involved in designing the Athlon (K7) and Apple A4/A5 processors.

Tenstorrent was founded by Ljubisa Bajic in 2016. Prior to Tenstorrent, Bajic gained extensive experience at AMD and Nvidia. Tenstorrent pitched its technology to Tesla while Jim Keller was working there. Although Tesla did not directly invest in Tenstorrent at that time, Keller became one of the its first major angel investors and he later joined Tenstorrent as the CTO in 2021 and became its CEO in 2023.

Tenstorrent is an emerging leader in the semiconductor industry, specializing in the design and production of advanced processors tailored for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. By developing processors that are purpose-built for AI, Tenstorrent is addressing a growing need for more efficient and powerful computing solutions. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with U.S. offices in Austin, Texas, and Silicon Valley, and global offices in Belgrade, Tokyo, and Bangalore, Tenstorrent brings together experts in the field of computer architecture, ASIC design, advanced systems, and neural network compilers.

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Received Funding from Major Korean Conglomerates

So far, Tenstorrent has received numerous funding from major Korean conglomerates including Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung. In 2023, Hyundai Motor Group invested US$50 million in Tenstorrent, leading a US$100 million in funding. Samsung Catalyst Fund (Samsung Group's Venture Capital Arm) also participated but has not revealed the exact amount. In early 2024, Hyundai Mobis appointed Tenstorrent's Chief Operating Officer (COO) Keith Witek as an outside director at its shareholders' meeting.