Samsung to advance AI chip development with Tenstorrent deal

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Samsung (NASDAQ: SSNLF) has partnered with Canada-based firm Tenstorrent to develop artificial intelligence (AI) chips to push the technology’s frontiers.

In a statement, Tenstorrent says the new partnership will see the development of the “next generation of AI chiplets to market” to rival industry bigwigs. The arrangement will involve Samsung’s Foundry Design Service team providing technical direction for manufacturing the AI chips.

A core feature of Tenstorrent AI chips is the ability to offer a range of functionalities as a range of its scalable power, ranging from milliwatts to megawatts. The chip can power simple devices to data centers with applications in the robotics and automotive sectors, according to the company.

“Tenstorrent’s focus is on developing high performance compute and delivering these solutions to customers around the world,” said Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller.

Tenstorrent plans to leverage Samsung’s SF4X chip design process using its 4nm architecture, noting that the new chiplets will be interoperable with its previous offerings. Tenstorrent’s ambitions saw it bring a new chief operating officer on board, but it still faces competition from Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and AMD (NASDAQ: AMD).

The partnership comes on the heels of Samsung Foundry’s expansion to the U.S. with a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Texas. Construction is underway for a new multi-million dollar plant in Texas to support the development of state-of-the-art AI chip design.

“Samsung’s advanced silicon manufacturing nodes will accelerate Tenstorrent’s innovation in RISC-V and AI for data center and automotive solutions,” said Marco Chisari, head of Samsung’s Foundry. “We look forward to working together and serving as Tentorrent’s foundry partner.”

This is not the first time both entities will cross paths, as Samsung previously led a $100 million funding round in August. At the time, Tenstorrent disclosed that the raise would be used to develop its next-gen chipset and planned foray into machine learning software to meet rising global demand.

Hardware firms are racking up wins

Chip manufacturing firms like Nvidia and AMD are the biggest pioneers in the scramble for generative AI. The spike in demand for hardware has seen the market capitalization of both firms reach new highs, with Nvidia surpassing the trillion mark for the first time.

Quarterly earnings reports from both firms paint a rosy picture, with metrics surpassing levels during the block reward mining craze at the height of the bull run. Despite bans against the supply of AI chips to China over national security concerns, both firms remain in great financial shape for the foreseeable future.

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