Tenstorrent, the chip startup focused on AI inference, has raised $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation, according to TechCrunch. The round more than doubled the company's valuation from the $2.6 billion it reached in late 2024 and comes five months after the ten-year-old Nvidia challenger reportedly drew acquisition interest from Intel and Qualcomm at valuations of up to $5 billion.
CEO Jim Keller told Bloomberg that Tenstorrent chose to stay independent and raise more capital after demonstrating that its Galaxy servers could run DeepSeek models. The new funding will go toward scaling chips built for serving open-weight AI models and video generation.
Tenstorrent funding round details
The round was led by Trace Capital, a new firm launched by Quiet Capital co-founder Ben Mahdavi, and Innovation X. Other backers included Cadence Ventures, Eclipse, Fidelity, SanDisk, and T. Rowe Price. The deal gives Tenstorrent fresh capital as it positions itself as an alternative to Nvidia in AI inference.
- $1.5 billion raised at a $6.2 billion valuation
- Valuation more than doubled from $2.6 billion in late 2024
- Round led by Trace Capital and Innovation X
- Other backers: Cadence Ventures, Eclipse, Fidelity, SanDisk, T. Rowe Price
- Acquisition interest from Intel and Qualcomm reportedly reached up to $5 billion
