Canadian AI Startup Tenstorrent Teams Up with Samsung to Produce Advanced AI Chip, Quasar

Canadian AI chip startup Tenstorrent has partnered with Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd's SSNLF contract chip manufacturing division to produce a new artificial intelligence chip, marking a significant stride in the competitive AI chip market. 

This collaboration underscores Tenstorrent's ambitious efforts to carve out a space in a domain primarily dominated by industry giant Nvidia Inc NVDA.

Samsung will employ its cutting-edge 4nm manufacturing process to produce Tenstorrent's chip, named Quasar. 

Some of Tenstorrent's chips are built with technology known as RISC-V. This open-source semiconductor architecture competes with Arm Holdings Plc ARM and x86, which Intel Corp INTC and Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD use.

The deal's specifics remain undisclosed, Reuters reports.

The partnership comes in the wake of a $100 million capital raise in August, in which Samsung and Hyundai Motor Co invested in Tenstorrent. Before this funding round, the AI startup was valued at $1 billion, having raised $234.5 million. 

The company, led by CEO Jim Keller, is focused on "developing high performance compute and delivering these solutions to customers around the world."

The Quasar chiplet can work with other chiplets within a single package, enhancing the efficiency and performance of AI computations. Tenstorrent is concentrating on data centers and exploring opportunities in diverse markets, including the automotive sector, broadening its reach and application.

On a separate note, reports suggested Samsung has won the contract to supply advanced memory chips to Nvidia. The South Korean electronics giant will provide a newer generation of memory HBM3 to Nvidia as it struggles to keep up with the surging AI demand.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.