• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Tenstorrent Closes $693M+ of Series D Funding Led by Samsung Securities and AFW Partners

AleksandarK

News Editor
Staff member
Joined
Aug 19, 2017
Messages
2,626 (0.98/day)
Santa Clara, CA: Tenstorrent is announcing that it has closed over $693M in its Series D funding round at a pre-money valuation of $2B. Samsung Securities and AFW Partners led the round, which was oversubscribed due to strong demand from investors. Samsung and AFW both have deep relationships with Tenstorrent, and a strong history of investing in pioneering technology companies.

In addition to the leads, many notable investors joined the round including XTX Markets, Corner Capital, MESH, Export Development Canada, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motor Group, Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, Bezos Expeditions, and more.




"We are excited by the breadth of investors that believe in our vision," said Keith Witek, Chief Operating Officer of Tenstorrent. "If you look at this group, you see a balance of financial investors and strategic investors, as well as some notable individuals that have conviction in our plans for AI. They respect our team, our technology, and our vision. They see the ~$150M in deals closed as a strong signal of commercial traction and opportunity in the market."

Tenstorrent builds and sells computers for artificial intelligence that are built using its Tensix cores. In addition to selling hardware, the open-source software stacks really set Tenstorrent apart from other players in the market. Tenstorrent licenses AI and RISC-V intellectual property to customers that want to own and customize their silicon.

Tenstorrent will use the Series D funding to build out open-source AI software stacks, hire developers, expand its global development and design centers, and build systems and clouds for AI developers.

"Our investors are great, " said Jim Keller, CEO of Tenstorrent. "During the fundraising process I was impressed by how interested our investors were in our open-source approach to software. They realize that the way to win is to get developers on board by giving them all the tools they need to own their own technology. "

"AFW Partners is dedicated to investing in innovative and disruptive technologies that we believe will change the world, with a specific focus on mobility innovation," said Bonil Koo, Managing Director at AFW Partners, who leads the Series D round with Samsung Securities. "Tenstorrent's momentum in the market, its innovative roadmaps filled with cutting edge technology, and open-source software are an unbeatable combination. We are thrilled to participate in their journey and success."

"We find Tenstorrent's open-source driven approach refreshing, especially in the proprietary and often secretive world of AI accelerators," said Joshua Leahy, Chief Technology Officer, XTX Markets. "We're excited to support them as they bring their ambitious roadmap to market."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
9,479 (3.27/day)
System Name Good enough
Processor AMD Ryzen R9 7900 - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge
Motherboard ASRock B650 Pro RS
Cooling 2x 360mm NexXxoS ST30 X-Flow, 1x 360mm NexXxoS ST30, 1x 240mm NexXxoS ST30
Memory 32GB - FURY Beast RGB 5600 Mhz
Video Card(s) Sapphire RX 7900 XT - Alphacool Eisblock Aurora
Storage 1x Kingston KC3000 1TB 1x Kingston A2000 1TB, 1x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB , 1x Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
Display(s) LG UltraGear 32GN650-B + 4K Samsung TV
Case Phanteks NV7
Power Supply GPS-750C
Man, this will be the mother of all tech bubbles.

With all of these fantastical figures being thrown around you'd think this tech sector must be generating billions upon billions in profits, right ? Wrong, I don't think people realize just how little money AI is currently making. OpenAI, the most popular and arguably relevant AI company, claims that they expect to lose 5 billion this year alone while still being funded pretty much exclusively from venture capital.

Despite all the fuss this shit is making no money whatsoever, turns out the biggest issue nobody was expecting is how to monetize this stuff, billions are poured in while nobody has any idea how they're ever going to make this money back, monthly subscriptions aren't going to cut it.

The only companies that are actually making money from all this are the likes of Nvidia or AMD (ironic, right) and a few other relevant hardware manufacturers but this relies on software companies generating the demand. How long can they keep this up, they're hoping that one day all this AI stuff will start paying for itself but that seems less and less likely to be the case.
 
Joined
Jul 10, 2010
Messages
1,234 (0.23/day)
Location
USA, Arizona
System Name SolarwindMobile
Processor AMD FX-9800P RADEON R7, 12 COMPUTE CORES 4C+8G
Motherboard Acer Wasp_BR
Cooling It's Copper.
Memory 2 x 8GB SK Hynix/HMA41GS6AFR8N-TF
Video Card(s) ATI/AMD Radeon R7 Series (Bristol Ridge FP4) [ACER]
Storage TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 1TB + KINGSTON RBU-SNS8152S3128GG2 128 GB
Display(s) ViewSonic XG2401 SERIES
Case Acer Aspire E5-553G
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC255
Power Supply PANASONIC AS16A5K
Mouse SteelSeries Rival
Keyboard Ducky Channel Shine 3
Software Windows 10 Home 64-bit (Version 1607, Build 14393.969)
Man, this will be the mother of all tech bubbles.
CPU-side of Tenstorrent will be interesting.
tens.jpeg
 

Packabowl09

New Member
Joined
May 4, 2023
Messages
12 (0.02/day)
Man, this will be the mother of all tech bubbles.

With all of these fantastical figures being thrown around you'd think this tech sector must be generating billions upon billions in profits, right ? Wrong, I don't think people realize just how little money AI is currently making. OpenAI, the most popular and arguably relevant AI company, claims that they expect to lose 5 billion this year alone while still being funded pretty much exclusively from venture capital.

Despite all the fuss this shit is making no money whatsoever, turns out the biggest issue nobody was expecting is how to monetize this stuff, billions are poured in while nobody has any idea how they're ever going to make this money back, monthly subscriptions aren't going to cut it.

The only companies that are actually making money from all this are the likes of Nvidia or AMD (ironic, right) and a few other relevant hardware manufacturers but this relies on software companies generating the demand. How long can they keep this up, they're hoping that one day all this AI stuff will start paying for itself but that seems less and less likely to be the case.

Amazon lost money for decades. Tesla as well. This is one instance where the market is seeing long-term growth over short-term gains.

I mean - you have to be impressed by how far AI image and video generation has come in the last year alone.

There is a possibility that AI could replace every single piece of software in the future - just like how smart phones replaced nearly every other piece of consumer electronics. You wouldn't buy TurboTax, instead you'd just upload all your tax info to your AI assistant. Nobody needs to buy Photoshop anymore, just ask AI to edit your photos.

That being said - yeah Im still not sure how they'd capitalize on it. Maybe a monthly subscription charge for super AI. I'm not a huge AI believer either though, even tho I do use it 50x a day at work.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
9,479 (3.27/day)
System Name Good enough
Processor AMD Ryzen R9 7900 - Alphacool Eisblock XPX Aurora Edge
Motherboard ASRock B650 Pro RS
Cooling 2x 360mm NexXxoS ST30 X-Flow, 1x 360mm NexXxoS ST30, 1x 240mm NexXxoS ST30
Memory 32GB - FURY Beast RGB 5600 Mhz
Video Card(s) Sapphire RX 7900 XT - Alphacool Eisblock Aurora
Storage 1x Kingston KC3000 1TB 1x Kingston A2000 1TB, 1x Samsung 850 EVO 250GB , 1x Samsung 860 EVO 500GB
Display(s) LG UltraGear 32GN650-B + 4K Samsung TV
Case Phanteks NV7
Power Supply GPS-750C
Amazon lost money for decades. Tesla as well. This is one instance where the market is seeing long-term growth over short-term gains.
Amazon and Tesla were individual companies within huge, well established industries.

Here we're talking about an entire tech sector that's struggling to monetize their products from the get go.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2013
Messages
7,563 (1.77/day)
Man, this will be the mother of all tech bubbles.
Still less than the 2008 "bubble" & remember this isn't the 18th century where the plebs would cut the oligarchy down to size!

At this point in time we really need "revolutions" to stop wealth accumulation at the top :shadedshu:
 
Joined
Aug 20, 2007
Messages
21,503 (3.40/day)
System Name Pioneer
Processor Ryzen R9 9950X
Motherboard GIGABYTE Aorus Elite X670 AX
Cooling Noctua NH-D15 + A whole lotta Sunon and Corsair Maglev blower fans...
Memory 64GB (4x 16GB) G.Skill Flare X5 @ DDR5-6000 CL30
Video Card(s) XFX RX 7900 XTX Speedster Merc 310
Storage Intel 905p Optane 960GB boot, +2x Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs
Display(s) 55" LG 55" B9 OLED 4K Display
Case Thermaltake Core X31
Audio Device(s) TOSLINK->Schiit Modi MB->Asgard 2 DAC Amp->AKG Pro K712 Headphones or HDMI->B9 OLED
Power Supply FSP Hydro Ti Pro 850W
Mouse Logitech G305 Lightspeed Wireless
Keyboard WASD Code v3 with Cherry Green keyswitches + PBT DS keycaps
Software Gentoo Linux x64 / Windows 11 Enterprise IoT 2024
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Messages
3,858 (0.59/day)
Location
Northern Ontario Canada
Processor Ryzen 5700x
Motherboard Gigabyte X570S Aero G R1.1 BiosF5g
Cooling Noctua NH-C12P SE14 w/ NF-A15 HS-PWM Fan 1500rpm
Memory Micron DDR4-3200 2x32GB D.S. D.R. (CT2K32G4DFD832A)
Video Card(s) AMD RX 6800 - Asus Tuf
Storage Kingston KC3000 1TB & 2TB & 4TB Corsair MP600 Pro LPX
Display(s) LG 27UL550-W (27" 4k)
Case Be Quiet Pure Base 600 (no window)
Audio Device(s) Realtek ALC1220-VB
Power Supply SuperFlower Leadex V Gold Pro 850W ATX Ver2.52
Mouse Mionix Naos Pro
Keyboard Corsair Strafe with browns
Software W10 22H2 Pro x64
Joined
Oct 27, 2009
Messages
1,185 (0.21/day)
Location
Republic of Texas
System Name [H]arbringer
Processor 4x 61XX ES @3.5Ghz (48cores)
Motherboard SM GL
Cooling 3x xspc rx360, rx240, 4x DT G34 snipers, D5 pump.
Memory 16x gskill DDR3 1600 cas6 2gb
Video Card(s) blah bigadv folder no gfx needed
Storage 32GB Sammy SSD
Display(s) headless
Case Xigmatek Elysium (whats left of it)
Audio Device(s) yawn
Power Supply Antec 1200w HCP
Software Ubuntu 10.10
Benchmark Scores http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=1780855 http://www.hwbot.org/submission/2158678 http://ww
Man, this will be the mother of all tech bubbles.

With all of these fantastical figures being thrown around you'd think this tech sector must be generating billions upon billions in profits, right ? Wrong, I don't think people realize just how little money AI is currently making. OpenAI, the most popular and arguably relevant AI company, claims that they expect to lose 5 billion this year alone while still being funded pretty much exclusively from venture capital.

Despite all the fuss this shit is making no money whatsoever, turns out the biggest issue nobody was expecting is how to monetize this stuff, billions are poured in while nobody has any idea how they're ever going to make this money back, monthly subscriptions aren't going to cut it.

The only companies that are actually making money from all this are the likes of Nvidia or AMD (ironic, right) and a few other relevant hardware manufacturers but this relies on software companies generating the demand. How long can they keep this up, they're hoping that one day all this AI stuff will start paying for itself but that seems less and less likely to be the case.
What I am seeing a lot of tech firms is use the chatbots internally for documentation filtering. Search/Summarize and cite.
 
Top