According to Bloomberg, preliminary talks have begun regarding the acquisition of Tenstorrent, a developer of artificial intelligence (AI) chips. Semiconductor giants Intel and Qualcomm have expressed significant interest in the company. While discussions are currently exploratory and have not reached a definitive agreement, the situation highlights the intensifying competition for independent architectures in the AI hardware market. This is reported by Ixbt.com .
Tenstorrent is a financially attractive asset. In November 2025, the startup was valued at $3.2 billion and was in talks to raise an $800 million funding round. Key investors include Jeff Bezos' Bezos Expeditions, LG Electronics, and Samsung. The startup also has partnership agreements with Hyundai in the field of automotive AI.
The company's success is driven by its CEO, Jim Keller. Keller is a legendary engineer who played a key role in creating Apple's A-series processors, Tesla's autopilot chips, and AMD's Zen architecture. Tenstorrent designs AI accelerators based on the open RISC-V architecture and engages in both selling ready-made chips and licensing its intellectual property.
For Intel, this acquisition is an opportunity to restore its position in the AI market after its Gaudi chips failed to meet expectations. Qualcomm aims to use Tenstorrent to reduce its reliance on Arm architecture and enter the data center segment. This acquisition would allow both companies to gain a ready-made, reputable RISC-V platform rather than building technology from scratch to compete with NVIDIA.
Bloomberg has not yet disclosed whether the talks will result in a full acquisition or a strategic investment. However, the rising market value of other AI startups like Cerebras and Groq suggests that the battle for Tenstorrent will be intense.
Read “Zamin” on Telegram!
