Samsung to manufacture chips from AI chip startup Tenstorrent


FILE PHOTO The logo of Samsung is seen on the top of a Brussels office of the company in Diegem Belgium September 21 2023. REUTERSYves HermanFile Photo

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Samsung is seen on the top of a Brussels' office of the company in Diegem, Belgium September 21, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

(Reuters) - Samsung's contract chip manufacturing arm picked up a new artificial intelligence chip customer, a Canadian startup called Tenstorrent, the company said on Monday.

Tenstorrent is among a number of startups looking to challenge Nvidia, which dominates the market for AI chips. The company produces chips and intellectual property for data centers, but is also working on supplying other markets such as automotive.

As part of the deal, Tenstorrent plans to use one of Samsung's advanced manufacturing processes, known as 4nm, to produce the chips. The Tenstorrent product manufactured by Samsung is a chiplet, and is designed to sit alongside other chiplets inside a single package.

Neither company disclosed the value of the deal, or the quantity of chips to be manufactured.

Some of Tenstorrent's chips are built with technology known as RISC-V, and open-source semiconductor architecture that competes with Arm and x86, which Intel and Advanced Micron Devices use.

The chip Samsung will manufacture is named Quasar, and is not based on RISC-V technology.

"Tenstorrent's focus is on developing high performance compute and delivering these solutions to customers around the world," Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller said in a statement.

SMARTER GAMING WITH CUTTING-EDGE HOME WI-FI

The chip deal follows a Samsung investment in Tenstorrent in August as part of a $100 million capital raise that included Hyundai Motor Co and others.

Prior to the August funding round, Tenstorrent had raised $234.5 million and had a $1 billion valuation.

(Reporting by Max A. Cherney in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Follow us on our official WhatsApp channel for breaking news alerts and key updates!

Others Also Read


Want to listen to full audio?

Unlock unlimited access to enjoy personalise features on the TheStar.com.my

Already a member? Log In