Approximately 1 Trillion Won Funded... Corporate Value at 3.6 Trillion Won
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, along with Samsung, LG Electronics, and Hyundai Motor, recently invested approximately 1 trillion won in Canadian semiconductor startup Tenstorrent, considered a rival to Nvidia, Bloomberg reported on the 2nd (local time).
Jim Keller, CEO of Tenstorrent and known as a "semiconductor legend," revealed this in an interview with Bloomberg.
According to CEO Keller, Tenstorrent was valued at about $2.6 billion (approximately 3.654 trillion won) in the Series D round led by AFW Partners and Samsung Securities, raising $700 million (about 983.8 billion won). Bezos participated through his investment firm Expedition, and U.S. asset management company Fidelity also invested. However, the specific investment amounts by each company were not disclosed.
Earlier in June, IT media outlet The Information reported that Samsung and LG Electronics planned to invest in Tenstorrent. Hyundai Motor Group invested $50 million (about 70.2 billion won) in Tenstorrent last year. Additionally, Samsung reportedly co-led a $100 million (about 140.5 billion won) investment in Tenstorrent last August through the Samsung Catalyst Fund (SCF), operated by its Strategic Innovation Center (SSIC). LG Electronics has been collaborating with Tenstorrent to develop semiconductors for TVs and other products.
Tenstorrent plans to use the funds raised to build an engineering team, invest in a global supply chain, and establish large-scale AI training servers. Through this, it aims to challenge the dominance of Nvidia, the leader in the AI chip market.
As demands for power and cost efficiency in AI have increased recently, efforts to exploit gaps in Nvidia’s offerings have become active. Tenstorrent is recognized for designing affordable and power-efficient semiconductors based on the open semiconductor design technology “RISC-V.”
Tenstorrent stated that its first chip was manufactured by GlobalFoundries, and the next products will be produced by TSMC and Samsung Electronics. Full-scale mass production will begin next year. It has also started designing cutting-edge 2nm (1nm = one billionth of a meter) chips. It is in discussions with Japan’s Rapidus for a planned release in 2027. CEO Keller said the company plans to launch new AI processors every two years.
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