Samsung Values Chip Customer Tenstorrent at $2 Billion

For the last two years, we’ve broken a lot of news about cloud giants Microsoft and Google elbowing out traditional venture firms to invest huge sums in artificial intelligence startups that are also their customers. A similar dynamic is playing out in hardware startups.

Samsung, the second-largest smartphone maker in the world, is leading a round of at least $300 million in Tenstorrent, a Toronto-based AI chip company helmed by CEO Jim Keller, an Apple and Tesla veteran. The deal values Tenstorrent at $2 billion before the investment, according to two people involved in the round. South Korea’s LG Electronics also plans to participate as a new investor, one of the people said, alongside returning investors Fidelity Management and Hyundai Motor Group.