Canadian chip-designing unicorn Tenstorrent Inc. has develop into a brand new foundry buyer of Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s second-biggest foundry that has been actively increasing its partnerships with fabless synthetic intelligence chip startups amid the AI increase.
The Toronto-based fabless AI chip developer introduced on Sunday that Samsung Electronics will mass-produce its RISC-V central processing unit (CPU) and AI acceleration chiplets from the Korean semiconductor big’s new foundry fab in Taylor, Texas, utilizing the SF4X course of, or 4-nanometer (nm) node.
The most recent order comes after Tenstorrent’s Chief Govt Jim Keller hinted on the startup’s transfer to deepen its collaboration with the Korean chip big in the course of the Samsung Foundry Discussion board within the US in June.
Tenstorrent, which grew to become a unicorn, or a privately held startup valued at over $1 billion, in 2021, closed a $100 million strategic financing from Samsung and different monetary backers resembling Hyundai Motor Group and varied enterprise capitals in August.
The most recent foundry order additionally comes after Samsung Electronics received its first foundry order for its new US foundry amenities beneath development from American fabless startup Groq Inc. in mid-August.
The Korean chip big has been actively forging partnerships with fabless AI chip startups at dwelling and overseas amid the continued AI craze, which is anticipated to assist Samsung Electronics slender the hole with its larger foundry rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s greatest foundry.
Samsung Electronics, which is the world’s prime reminiscence chip maker, is the world’s No. 2 foundry firm, trailing far behind TSMC.
The Korean chip big has obtained an order from Korean AI chip designer Rebellions Inc. to provide next-generation AI chips on a 5-nm node. It is going to additionally construct 4 sorts of high-performance AI chips for an additional Korean AI chip developer DEEPX Co.
Its new foundry in Taylor, Texas is scheduled to kick off mass manufacturing within the second half of 2024.
JIM KELLER’S TENSTORRENT
Tenstorrent based in 2016 is led by prime chip designer Jim Keller, who beforehand labored at Superior Micro Units Inc. (AMD ) and Intel Corp.
Its next-generation AI chiplets to be constructed by Samsung Electronics are designed to ship scalable energy from milliwatts to megawatts, catering to a variety of purposes starting from edge gadgets resembling cellular gadgets to knowledge facilities.
A chiplet is a sub-processing unit composed of a number of chips on a tiny built-in circuit, and its demand is rising quickly amid the continued AI increase as a result of it will probably enhance chip efficiency considerably whereas consuming much less energy.
“Tenstorrent’s focus is on creating high-performance compute and delivering these options to clients around the globe,” Tenstorrent CEO Keller was quoted as saying within the firm’s press launch.
“Samsung’s superior silicon manufacturing nodes will speed up Tenstorrent’s improvements in RISC-V and AI for knowledge heart and automotive options,” mentioned Marco Chisari, head of Samsung’s US Foundry enterprise.
To additional solidify its foundry management within the AI period, Samsung Electronics in June introduced it would start mass manufacturing of its 2-nm course of for cellular purposes in 2025, develop manufacturing capability at its Pyeongtaek fab Line 3 in Korea and launch a brand new multi-die integration (MDI) alliance for next-generation packaging know-how.
On the Samsung Foundry Discussion board and Samsung Superior Foundry Ecosystem Discussion board 2023 held in Seoul in July, the South Korean tech big additionally unveiled custom-tailored shopper assist applications, together with its newest 2- to 3-nm chip course of design kits due for launch within the second half of this yr.
Write to Ye-Rin Choi at rambutan@hankyung.com
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