Canadian AI computing startup Tenstorrent and LG partner to build chips
Reuters
Published May 30, 2023 09:04AM ET
By Jane Lanhee Lee
OAKLAND, California (Reuters) - Canadian AI computer design startup Tenstorrent said on Tuesday it was partnering with South Korea's consumer electronics firm LG Electronics Inc to build chips that power smart TVs, automotive products and data centers.
Tenstorrent, started in 2016, designs computers to train and run artificial intelligence models and works on both the software and hardware, CEO Jim Keller said in an interview. Keller is an engineer best known for his pioneering work in designing chips at Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc , and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) Inc .
Keller, an early investor in Tenstorrent, took the helm in 2023. The company, already worth $1 billion according to data firm PitchBook, has not revealed any of its customers until now.
LG will initially use Tenstorrent's AI chip blueprint to design its own chips, but the partnership is more strategic, said David Bennett, Tenstorrent's chief customer officer.
"What we're looking at is also some of the technology that LG has developed. Could it not be something that we use either in our own products or potentially with other future customers."
Tenstorrent has also designed a processor chip using RISC-V, a relatively new open standard chip architecture competing with Arm Ltd's Arm architecture. While many chip startups focus on one type of chip, Keller said his team was developing both the AI chip and processor as they will need to work closely together to handle the fast-changing AI models.
"We have to aim at the whole thing. ... It's quite early. And it was built on the available components," said Keller about today's AI and AI hardware landscape.
"In the last five years people learned so much about how this works and made real progress. But it doesn't look like we're anywhere close to 'this is the right way to do it, the best way to do it, or the final thing.'"
Get The News You Want
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.