Jim Keller-Led Tenstorrent Raises Another $700M For AI Chips At $2B+ Valuation

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Tenstorrent, the chip startup led by vaunted semiconductor engineer Jim Keller, says it raised more than $693 million in a Series D funding that gives it a $2 billion pre-money valuation.

Samsung Securities and AFW Partners led the round. Jeff Bezos’ Bezos Expeditions, Fidelity Management & Research Co. and LG Electronics also joined the funding for Tenstorrent, which aims to rival semiconductor giant Nvidia in the creation of chips for AI. Export Development Canada, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, Hyundai Motor Group, Baillie Gifford and other investors also participated in the deal.

Santa Clara, California-based Tenstorrent was founded in 2016 and the company has since raised more than $1 billion, per Crunchbase.

Keller, one of the most acclaimed engineers in the semiconductor industry, joined the company in 2021 as president and chief technology officer, and was named CEO in early 2023. He had previously worked at Intel, Tesla, Apple — where he led the development of the A4 and A5 processors, which powered the iPhone 4 — and AMD, where he was the lead architect of its K8 microarchitecture.

Bloomberg reported that Tenstorrent’s latest funding was $700 million total and its post-money valuation is about $2.6 billion.

Tenstorrent says it plans to use the new capital to “build out open-source AI software stacks, hire developers, expand its global development and design centers, and build systems and clouds for AI developers.”

The company is just the latest startup at the intersection of chips and AI to raise big from investors this year. Others include:

In October, Lightmatter, a startup that uses light to link chips together and to do calculations for the deep learning necessary for AI, locked up a $400 million Series D led by new investor T. Rowe Price at a $4.4 billion valuation.
Black Semiconductor raised nearly $275 million — mainly from the German government — in July.
In March, optical interconnectivity startup Celestial AI raised a $175 million Series C led by Thomas Tull’s US Innovative Technology Fund. Celestial’s photonic fabric platform helps separate compute and memory, making processing extensive AI faster and more energy-efficient.
San Francisco-based Etched.ai locked up a $120 million round led by Positive Sum and Primary Venture Partners in June.
That was after Israel-based AI chipmaker Hailo locked up a $120 million extension of its $136 million Series C in April. The new funding round was led by current and new investors including Gil Agmon, Poalim Equity and others.
In February, San Jose, California-based Recogni, which is developing its AI inference chip for both the generative AI and automotive industries, raised a $102 million Series C co-led by Celesta Capital and GreatPoint Ventures.
Santa Clara, California-based Halo Industries, a developer of a laser manufacturing technology platform for the semiconductor industry, raised an $80 million Series B led by US Innovative Technology Fund in July.
Also in July, San Jose, California-based DreamBig Semiconductor raised $75 million in an equity round co-led by the Samsung Catalyst Fund and Sehat Sutardja.

In March, AI chip startup Astera Labs became one of the few venture-backed startups to go public this year. The company raised $713 million in an IPO on the Nasdaq when its shares priced at $36 each. The company has been trading above the $100-mark lately.

— Chris Metinko contributed to this report.