Hyundai, Kia, and Samsung invest $100m in AI and RISC-V chip firm Tenstorrent
Aug 03, 2023 | Posted by Abdul-Rahman Oladimeji
Tenstorrent, a maker of AI chips, has raised $100 million from investors, including the Hyundai Motor Group, Kia, and a fund run by Samsung. The investment in the RISC-V and AI startup was set up as a debt that will eventually convert to stock. Tenstorrent will not have an official new valuation until it conducts another round of equity fundraising next year, as the company has stated.
Prior to the transaction, Tenstorrent had previously raised $234.5 million at a valuation of $1 billion. Tenstorrent is developing a RISC-V CPU and scalable artificial intelligence accelerators for the cloud and Edge to compete with Nvidia's GPUs. Additionally, it licenses its designs to other businesses.
In this most recent investment, the company received $30 million from Hyundai and $20 million from Hyundai subsidiary Kia. Samsung's Catalyst Fund and other investors, including Fidelity Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, Epiq Capital, and Maverick Capital, contributed $50 million.
As part of the agreement, Hyundai stated that it would use Tenstorrent designs in "future Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis" vehicles. Hyundai's semiconductor development group was established last year. This year, Tenstorrent signed a contract with LG to include its processors in smart televisions.