Tenstorrent has raised $1.5 billion in a Series E round at a $6.2 billion post-money valuation, more than doubling the $2.6 billion mark set after a $700 million raise in 20245,3.
The round was led by Trace Capital and Innovation X, with participation from ARK Invest, Sandisk, Morgan Stanley, and T. Rowe Price. Tether Investments also backed the round.
The Santa Clara-based startup builds AI chips and software around RISC-V, the open-source chip architecture that lets companies design processors without paying licensing fees. Tenstorrent said the new capital will go toward scaling production of Galaxy, a server system that bundles multiple Tenstorrent chips to handle AI workloads including chatbots, coding assistants, and video generators.
ANALYSIS Shipping a full server platform rather than standalone chips moves RISC-V from an experimental option toward a production-ready alternative for enterprise buyers, a step that could accelerate developer tooling and reduce perceived switching risk.
Bloomberg reported that Tenstorrent attracted takeover interest earlier this year before opting to raise independently. Prior Vector Wire coverage noted that Intel had held separate acquisition talks with Tenstorrent that could have valued the startup above $5 billion[1].
ANALYSIS By closing a large independent round at a higher figure, Tenstorrent retains autonomy while setting a price floor that any future acquirer would need to clear.