Tenstorrent, a US-based AI chip startup focused on inference, has raised US$1.5 billion at a US$6.2 billion valuation to expand hardware for open-weight AI models and video generation.

Trace Capital and Innovation X led the round. CEO Jim Keller said the company chose to stay independent after showing that its Galaxy servers could run DeepSeek models.

Tenstorrent reportedly drew acquisition interest from Intel and Qualcomm at valuations of up to US$5 billion.

The new round more than doubled Tenstorrent’s valuation from US$2.6 billion in late 2024.

Etched, another AI chip startup, was also reportedly fielding investment offers at valuations of US$40 billion or more.

Keller has also said Tenstorrent is open to producing chips with Intel, as well as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung.

The company is also in talks with TSMC, Rapidus, and Samsung on 2nm technology.

🔗 Source: TechCrunch

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