Canadian artificial intelligence (AI) chip company Tenstorrent has raised $100m (C$134m) in a funding round led by Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai) and Samsung Catalyst Fund.
Other investors including Fidelity Ventures, Eclipse Ventures, Epiq Capital and Maverick Capital also participated in the round.
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Of the $100m, $50m will come from Hyundai’s units Hyundai Motor Company ($30m) and Kia ($20m).
Set up in 2016, and led by industry veteran CEO Jim Keller, Tenstorrent is engaged in designing and developing advanced chips aimed at accelerating AI and machine learning (ML) workloads.
Keller said: “The trust in Tenstorrent shown by Hyundai Motor Group and Samsung Catalyst Fund leading our round is truly humbling.”
It sells AI processors and offers licensing of AI and RISC-V IP to customers who wish to own and customise their semiconductors.
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By GlobalDataThe proceeds will be used to speed up Tenstorrent’s ML software pipeline as well as the design and development of AI chipsets.
In a separate announcement, Hyundai said it plans to use the chip company’s know-how and technology to develop advanced semiconductors while bolstering its capabilities.
The newly developed chips will be used in central processing units (CPU) and neural processing units (NPU) of future vehicles and mobility solutions, Hyundai added.
Hyundai Motor Group executive vice president and head of the global strategy office Heung-soo Kim said: “Tenstorrent’s high growth potential and high-performance AI semiconductors will help the Group secure competitive technologies for future mobilities.”
Samsung Semiconductor Innovation Center head and Samsung Electronics EVP Marco Chisari said: “Tenstorrent’s industry-leading technology, executive leadership, and aggressive roadmap motivated us to co-lead this funding round. We are excited by the opportunity to work with Tenstorrent to accelerate AI and compute innovations.”
In May this year, Tenstorrent formed a partnership with consumer electronics company LG Electronics to develop chips.
