Tenstorrent, a chip startup focused on inference, has raised 1.5 billion dollars at a 6.2 billion dollar valuation, more than doubling the 2.6 billion dollar valuation it fetched in late 2024. The round was led by Trace Capital and Innovation X, with Cadence Ventures, Eclipse, Fidelity, SanDisk and T. Rowe Price also taking part, and the new capital will go toward scaling chips tailored for serving open-weight AI models and video generation. Chief executive Jim Keller told Bloomberg the company decided to remain independent and raise more capital after its Galaxy servers showed they could run DeepSeek models, five months after Intel and Qualcomm reportedly showed acquisition interest at valuations of as much as 5 billion dollars.
Tenstorrent raises 1.5 billion dollars at 6.2 billion valuation
AI chip startup Tenstorrent has raised 1.5 billion dollars at a 6.2 billion dollar valuation, more than double its late 2024 valuation, and will use the capital to scale chips for serving open-weight AI models.
Why it matters: The round, five months after Intel and Qualcomm reportedly weighed acquiring the company at up to 5 billion dollars, keeps a prominent Nvidia challenger independent and funded to build inference hardware at scale.
Data as of TechCrunch report of October 19, 2026, read in full, with the amount and valuation corroborated by Datacenter Dynamics and Bloomberg reporting carried by Investing.com. Chief executive Jim Keller's comments are as quoted by Bloomberg via TechCrunch. Developing item.
Sources
- Tenstorrent hits $6.2B valuation to scale open-weight AI chips · TechCrunch · 2026-10-19
- AI chip startup Tenstorrent raises $1.5bn at $6.2bn valuation · Datacenter Dynamics · 2026-10-19