The archive · Hardware & Devices · Strategic decision · 2024–2026
Tenstorrent: open RISC-V and open-source software as the NVIDIA antidote
Jim Keller's startup raised $693M at a $2B pre-money valuation to sell open AI compute — and shipped Galaxy Blackhole servers in volume by May 2026.
Tenstorrent
What the business is
Tenstorrent designs and sells computers for AI built around its Tensix tensor cores and RISC-V CPUs, combined with a fully open-source software stack (TT-NN, TT-Lang, TT-Forge) so customers can run almost any model without a proprietary compiler. Beyond hardware, it licenses its AI and RISC-V intellectual property to customers who want to design and own their own chips, aiming at sovereign-AI buyers who cannot or will not depend on NVIDIA.
How it started
Founded in Toronto in 2016 and led since 2021 by microprocessor legend Jim Keller (AMD Zen, Apple, Tesla), Tenstorrent set out to chip away at NVIDIA's dominant share of AI accelerators. Its thesis was that AI demand would outgrow proprietary GPU supply, and that buyers — national clouds, enterprises, and developers — would want hardware and software they could own, not a closed ecosystem they could only rent.
What happened
On December 2, 2024 Tenstorrent closed over $693M in a Series D at a $2B pre-money valuation, led by Samsung Securities and AFW Partners and joined by Bezos Expeditions, Hyundai Motor Group, LG Electronics, Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, XTX Markets and Export Development Canada, among others. The company said the round was oversubscribed and that it had signed customer contracts worth nearly $150M; the capital went to open-source software, hiring, global design centers, and building AI systems and clouds.
How it ended up
Still scaling: by May 2026 Tenstorrent had launched Galaxy Blackhole in volume production, linking 36 servers into a single supercomputer, and cited deployments with Equinix, Cirrascale, BetterBrain, ai& in Tokyo and Virtu Financial — a long way from NVIDIA's grip, but with shipped hardware, partners and record inference demos as proof of the open approach.
Background
Tenstorrent was founded in Toronto in 2016 and placed under Jim Keller, the architect behind AMD's Zen CPUs, with the claim that NVIDIA's AI dominance was a software lock-in, not a hardware inevitability. Its answer was RISC-V cores, licensable silicon, and an AI software stack that is 100% open source, aimed at buyers who want to own their chips.
In December 2024 the bet drew capital: a $693M+ Series D at a $2B pre-money valuation led by Samsung Securities and AFW Partners, with Bezos Expeditions, Hyundai, LG Electronics, Fidelity, Baillie Gifford and Export Development Canada joining, on the back of nearly $150M in signed customer contracts. Tenstorrent said it would spend the money on open-source software, engineers, global design centers and AI clouds.
By May 2026 the strategy had shipped: Galaxy Blackhole servers entered volume production, scaling 36 machines into a single supercomputer, with deployments named at Equinix, Cirrascale, ai& in Tokyo, Turium in India and Virtu Financial. NVIDIA still dominates AI compute, but Tenstorrent had turned the open-source argument into hardware customers run rather than a slide deck.
What has to be true
- The open stack is the moat: a 100% open-source software layer and RISC-V cores let sovereign and enterprise buyers own their AI infrastructure instead of renting CUDA.
- Cost is designed in, not bolted on: no silicon interposers or Ethernet switches keeps hardware cheap enough to win price-sensitive buyers NVIDIA cannot serve.
- Licensing turns competitors into customers: selling AI and RISC-V IP means chipmakers who would never buy boxes still pay for the design.
What can be applied
When the incumbent owns the ecosystem, compete on ownership: open the software, license the silicon, and let buyers afraid of lock-in pay to own their stack.
Aftermath
As of May 2026 Tenstorrent shipped Galaxy Blackhole systems in volume: a 6nm chip with GDDR6 memory and direct-attach Ethernet, scaling 32 chips into a Galaxy and 36 Galaxies into a supercluster, with a 90% pass rate running Hugging Face models on a fully open-source stack. Equinix, Cirrascale, BetterBrain, ai& in Tokyo and Virtu Financial were named deployments. The December 2024 Series D and reported ~$150M in contracts underpinned the claim that the RISC-V open-source bet was commercial, not theoretical.
Sources
- Tenstorrent closes $693M+ of Series D funding led by Samsung Securities and AFW Partners
- Jeff Bezos backs AI chipmaker Tenstorrent
- Tenstorrent's Galaxy Blackhole: Can RISC-V Processors Expand Fast Inference Globally?
- TT-Deploy: Tenstorrent Galaxy Blackhole in production
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