What happened
Tenstorrent raised $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation, more than doubling the $2.6 billion it fetched in late 2024, led by Trace Capital and Innovation X.
Why it matters
The round values the 10-year-old Nvidia challenger at more than the $5 billion acquisition interest it reportedly drew from Intel and Qualcomm five months earlier.
WHO IT HITSThe funding gives enterprises evaluating non-Nvidia inference hardware a better-capitalized alternative for running open-weight AI models, though Tenstorrent still competes with Nvidia's dominance and well-funded rivals like Etched.
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Tenstorrent's raise arrives five months after the company reportedly drew acquisition interest from Intel and Qualcomm at valuations of as much as $5 billion. Rather than sell, the 10-year-old chip startup raised $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation — more than double the $2.6 billion it fetched in late 2024 — with Trace Capital and Innovation X leading the round.
The decision to stay independent followed a technical demonstration: CEO Jim Keller told Bloomberg that Tenstorrent showed its Galaxy servers could run DeepSeek models. That proof point appears to have given investors confidence to fund the company's push into chips tailored for serving open-weight AI models and video generation.
Tenstorrent is part of a wave of AI hardware startups trying to chip away at Nvidia's dominance. Among them is Etched, an AI chip maker that was fielding investment offers at valuations of $40 billion or more, TechCrunch reported earlier this month — a sign that investor appetite for Nvidia alternatives extends well beyond Tenstorrent's scale.
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