Samsung to develop AI chips with Canadian startup Tenstorrent

The Canadian startup Tenstorrent, which builds artificial intelligence (AI) processors, among other things, revealed a new partnership with Samsung’s chip manufacturing department.

On Oct. 2, the startup announced the partnership with Samsung, saying it will use it to bring the “next generation of AI chiplets to market.” Tenstorrent manufactures chips and intellectual property (IP) for data centers.

The deal includes using one of Samsung’s advanced manufacturing processes, the SF4X process and 4nm architecture, to produce its next-gen chips. According to the announcement, the product to be developed with Samsung will be a chiplet to be paired with other chiplets in one package.

Jim Keller, the CEO of Tenstorrent, said the goal is to develop “high performance compute” and to deliver these solutions to “customers around the world.”

In August, Tenstorrent closed a $100 million funding round led by Samsung and the automotive manufacturer Hyundai. At the time, Tenstorrent said the funds would go toward accelerating product development and design, AI chiplets and a roadmap for machine learning software.

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This development comes in the heat of the race to develop the most powerful AI chips to create high-level AI systems.

Currently, Nvidia is the market leader when it comes to chip development and power. Earlier in 2023, the company briefly tipped $1 trillion in value amid the AI frenzy.

While Nvidia remains at the head of the pack for chip development, it recently came under scrutiny by authorities in France in an antitrust investigation. The local police raided Nvidia offices after French antitrust authorities made a general inquiry into the cloud computing sector.

On Oct. 2, following the events in France, the European Commission said European Union antitrust regulators had not opened a formal investigation into AI chips, according to a Reuters report. 

In the United States, authorities have been actively pushing for control over the industry and issued a ban on exports of high-level Nvidia technology to China in October 2022. They have further tightened measures in recent months. Nvidia is an American company subject to U.S. regulations and restrictions.

The U.S. has recently made a multibillion-dollar deal with Vietnam — a traditional trading partner with China and a former adversary of the U.S. — concerning AI chips and technology.

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