Tenstorrent Reaches $6.2B Valuation to Scale Open‑Weight AI Chips

Tenstorrent, the inference‑focused chip startup led by veteran microprocessor architect Jim Keller, announced a $1.5 billion round that pushes its valuation to $6.2 billion — more than double the $2.6 billion figure from late 2024.

The round was spearheaded by Trace Capital, a new vehicle from Quiet Capital co‑founder Ben Mahdavi, alongside Innovation X, Cadence Ventures, Eclipse, Fidelity, SanDisk and T. Rowe Price. Keller told Bloomberg the company chose to stay independent after demonstrating that its Galaxy servers can efficiently run DeepSeek models.

Why it matters for GPU / AI infrastructure

• Open‑weight models are driving demand for inference hardware that balances performance with cost.
• Tenstorrent’s architecture targets that niche, offering an alternative to Nvidia’s dominant GPUs.
• Fresh capital will fund silicon scaling, software stack maturation, and go‑to‑market efforts for video‑generation workloads.

As a wave of AI‑hardware challengers — such as Etched — attract multi‑billion‑dollar valuations, Tenstorrent’s latest raise signals growing investor confidence in specialized inference silicon.