Tenstorrent hits $6.2B valuation to scale open-weight AI chips
In Brief Posted: 11:37 AM PDT · October 19, 2026 Image Credits:Tenstorrent Marina Temkin Tenstorrent hits $6.2B valuation to scale open-weight AI chips Tenstorrent, a chip startup focused on inference, has raised $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation. The round comes five months after the…
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In Brief Posted: 11:37 AM PDT · October 19, 2026 Image Credits:Tenstorrent Marina Temkin Tenstorrent hits $6.2B valuation to scale open-weight AI chips Tenstorrent, a chip startup focused on inference, has raised $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation. The round comes five months after the 10-year-old Nvidia challenger reportedly received acquisition interest from Intel and Qualcomm at valuations of as much as $5 billion. The fresh round, which more than doubled Tenstorrent’s valuation from the $2.6 billion it fetched in late 2024, was led by Trace Capital, a new firm launched by Quiet Capital co-founder Ben Mahdavi, and Innovation X. Other backers included Cadence Ventures, Eclipse, Fidelity, SanDisk, and T. Rowe Price. Jim Keller, a prominent microprocessor engineer and Tenstorrent CEO, told Bloomberg that the company decided to remain independent and raise more capital after it showed that its Galaxy servers could run DeepSeek models. The new capital will go toward scaling chips tailored for serving open-weight AI models and video generation. Tenstorrent is part of a wave of AI hardware startups trying to chip away at Nvidia’s dominance. Among them is Etched, an AI chip maker that was fielding investment offers at valuations of $40 billion or more, TechCrunch reported earlier this month. Topics AI, Fundraising, In Brief, Tenstorrent, Venture November 4 Boston Buy One Pass, Get a Second FreeCover more ground at TechCrunch’s ultimate founder bootcamp of the year by bringing your co-founder or partner for freeBook before the BOGO deal expires Register Now Newsletters See More Subscribe for the industry’s biggest tech news Related Startups Amazon is taking its biggest shot at Nvidia yet with new TorchNeuron dev tool Julie Bort 9 hours ago Apps Tolan snags $30M for its AI companion that helps users navigate life Sarah Perez 10 hours ago AI Nvidia launches new open models to run agents in the enterprise and on PCs Julie Bort 13 hours ago Latest in Fundraising Startups Kick-start your career and save 25% on TechCrunch Founder Summit TechCrunch Events 5 hours ago In Brief Tenstorrent hits $6.2B valuation to scale open-weight AI chips Marina Temkin 10 hours ago TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 Last chance to save up to $200 on your TechCrunch Founder Summit pass: Early booking ends October 16 TechCrunch Events 4 days ago