---
title: "Intel and Qualcomm lose their shot at Tenstorrent as it raises $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation"
description: "Tenstorrent chose new money over reported sale talks with Intel and Qualcomm, more than doubling its valuation. The round funds volume manufacturing of Galaxy, its open RISC-V server line for AI workloads."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Deals"
published: 2026-10-19T16:15:22.756Z
modified: 2026-10-19T16:15:22.756Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/intel-and-qualcomm-lose-their-shot-at-tenstorrent-as-it-raises-1-5-billion-at-a-6-2-billion-valuation
language: en
keywords: "Tenstorrent, Funding, Semiconductors, RISC V, M&A"
---

# Intel and Qualcomm lose their shot at Tenstorrent as it raises $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation

> Tenstorrent chose new money over reported sale talks with Intel and Qualcomm, more than doubling its valuation. The round funds volume manufacturing of Galaxy, its open RISC-V server line for AI workloads.

[Tenstorrent](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tenstorrent) [closed a $1.5 billion Series E on Monday](https://betakit.com/tenstorrent-secures-1-5-billion-usd-at-6-2-billion-valuation-to-challenge-gpu-dominance/) [1]. The round values the Toronto-founded AI-computer maker at $6.2 billion [1]. [Intel](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/intel) and [Qualcomm](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/qualcomm) [held talks earlier this year to buy it](https://theinference.org/article/intel-and-qualcomm-are-reported-in-talks-for-tenstorrent-worth-up-to-10-billion), at prices reported up to $10 billion [2]. Jim Keller, the designer of [Apple](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/apple)'s A4 and A5, [AMD](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/amd)'s Zen and [Tesla](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tesla)'s self-driving chip, made the call [3]. Growing the company is "the best return for the investor and the employees," he told [Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-19/ai-chip-startup-tenstorrent-raises-funds-at-6-2-billion-value) [4]. The bet pays off only if Galaxy becomes the standard hardware for running open-weight AI models.

*Chart: **New money prices Tenstorrent below the reported bid ceiling** Bar chart: Tenstorrent valued at $2.6 billion in December 2024, takeover talks reported up to $10 billion in June 2026, and a $6.2 billion Series E post-money valuation in October 2026.*

*Reported whole-company marks, US$ billions. The June 2026 figure is a valuation ceiling reported by The Information and confirmed in outline by Reuters, not a closed price. [1][2]*

## The chips were built for inference, and May showed they work

Tenstorrent's Tensix cores each carry one to two megabytes of their own on-chip memory and reach one another through a direct mesh of hardware routers [2]. When a model's weights fit inside that pooled memory, inference runs without the slow trips to external memory that a GPU hides by keeping thousands of threads in flight [2]. The chips are built for that job, answering one user's request to a trained model, rather than for the giant training runs where [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia)'s design is strongest [2]. Galaxy, the server line built on them, [reached general availability on April 28](https://www.techtimes.com/articles/318559/20260617/qualcomm-pursues-tenstorrent-10-billion-risc-v-bet-nvidias-blind-spot.htm) [2]. In May it ran [DeepSeek](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/deepseek)'s open-weight models, which anyone can download and modify [5], and Keller called the demonstration the turning point: once the company could show performance and ship, "the investor interest came in" [4].

## The round pays to turn shipped servers into volume production

The money funds volume manufacturing of Galaxy servers, next-generation hardware and licensable chip designs, and hiring [1]. It deepens the bet on RISC-V, the open chip architecture its processors run on, with the software stack published as open source [3]. Customers already sit in that middle: the trading firm [Virtu Financial runs on-premises AI trading agents on Galaxy servers](https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/19/chip-legend-jim-kellers-tenstorrent-raises-1-5b-to-expand-its-open-compute-ecosystem/), and [Equinix](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/equinix), a data-center colocation provider, offers them to enterprises [6]. Samsung and LG license the designs, and the same architecture sells from a $999 card to rack-scale superclusters [1][8]. The weak link is software: TT-Metalium, the open-source rival to Nvidia's CUDA, makes programmers manage data movement themselves, and independent production-scale benchmarks do not yet exist [2].

## New investors set the price, and early ones have banked returns

Trace Capital, the Los Angeles firm former NFL linebacker Ben Mahdavi started this year, and New York-based Innovation X led the round [5][7]. Fidelity, [Morgan Stanley](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/morgan-stanley), [T. Rowe Price](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/t-rowe-price), [Sandisk](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/sandisk) and [Tether](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tether) Investments joined [3][4]. Real Ventures, an early Montreal investor, [sold its entire stake last year and made back its whole $88-million fund](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-tenstorrent-raises-15-billion-toronto-founded-valued-62-billion/) [5]. Keller and the employees keep the upside, and the IPO the company began preparing with its 2023 move from Toronto to Santa Clara stays open [1]. Nvidia, past $5 trillion in market value, keeps its grip for now [5].

## Buyers gain an independent supplier, and one benchmark to wait for

For buyers of AI compute, the result is an independent supplier. Intel and Qualcomm could have bought the alternative; now they have to compete with it. The signal to watch is an independent, production-scale benchmark of TT-Metalium against CUDA, because until one exists the new valuation rests on Tenstorrent's own performance claims [2].

## Takeaway

Tenstorrent's $1.5 billion Series E at a $6.2 billion valuation keeps it independent and funds volume manufacturing of Galaxy, but the price rests on performance claims an independent benchmark has yet to test.

## Sources

1. [BetaKit, Tenstorrent secures $1.5 billion USD at $6.2-billion valuation to challenge GPU dominance, 19 October 2026](https://betakit.com/tenstorrent-secures-1-5-billion-usd-at-6-2-billion-valuation-to-challenge-gpu-dominance/)
2. [TechTimes, Qualcomm Pursues Tenstorrent at Up to $10 Billion: RISC-V Bet on Nvidia's Blind Spot, 17 June 2026](https://www.techtimes.com/articles/318559/20260617/qualcomm-pursues-tenstorrent-10-billion-risc-v-bet-nvidias-blind-spot.htm)
3. [The Next Web, Tenstorrent raises $1.5B at $6.2B valuation after takeover talks, 19 October 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/tenstorrent-1-5bn-series-e-6-2bn-valuation)
4. [Quartz, Tenstorrent raised $1.5 billion, more than doubling its valuation to $6.2 billion, 19 October 2026](https://qz.com/tenstorrent-raised-1-5-billion-series-e-valuation-101926)
5. [The Globe and Mail, Nvidia challenger Tenstorrent raises $1.5-billion, valuing Toronto-founded company at $6.2-billion, 19 October 2026](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-tenstorrent-raises-15-billion-toronto-founded-valued-62-billion/)
6. [SiliconANGLE, Chip legend Jim Keller's Tenstorrent raises $1.5B to expand its open compute ecosystem, 19 October 2026](https://siliconangle.com/2026/10/19/chip-legend-jim-kellers-tenstorrent-raises-1-5b-to-expand-its-open-compute-ecosystem/)
7. [Bloomberg, Chip Startup Tenstorrent Raises Funds at $6.2 Billion Value, 19 October 2026](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-19/ai-chip-startup-tenstorrent-raises-funds-at-6-2-billion-value)
8. [Tenstorrent, homepage and Series E announcement, 19 October 2026](https://tenstorrent.com/)


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Intel and Qualcomm lose their shot at Tenstorrent as it raises $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/intel-and-qualcomm-lose-their-shot-at-tenstorrent-as-it-raises-1-5-billion-at-a-6-2-billion-valuation