Samsung leads US$700 million investment in Tenstorrent

High-performance computing startup Tenstorrent Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has closed its Series D round of funding led by Samsung Securities at more than US$693 million.

Samsung and AFW Partners led the round, which brings the total raised by Tenstorrent since its formation in 2016 to approximately US$1 billion and values the company at about US$2 billion.

Tenstorrent said it would use the latest round of funding to hire more developers and expand its design centers and build systems and clouds to support AI applications.

In addition to the lead investors, those joining the round included: XTX Markets, Corner Capital, MESH, Export Development Canada, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor Group, Fidelity, Baillie Gifford and Bezos Expeditions.

“If you look at this group, you see a balance of financial investors and strategic investors, as well as some notable individuals that have conviction in our plans for AI,” said Keith Witek, COO of Tenstorrent, in a statement. Witek added that Tensorrent has closed deals worth approximately US$150 million.

Tenstorrent has two main strands of business. It builds and sells computers for AI based on chips that use its Tensix cores. It also licenses AI and RISC-V intellectual property to customers that want to own and customize their silicon.

Jim Keller, CEO, said: “During the fundraising process I was impressed by how interested our investors were in our open-source approach to software. They realize that the way to win is to get developers on board by giving them all the tools they need to own their own technology.”