The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell-on-earth yarn claiming that Intel and Qualcomm are circling Tenstorrent as the AI chip gold rush keeps making grown semiconductor firms behave oddly.
According to a Bloomberg report Tenstorrent has held conversations with both chipmakers and is speaking to investment banks to weigh up its options. The company competes in the AI chip market against Nvidia and AMD, pitching its technology as a challenger to the usual suspects.
If Tenstorrent decides to flog itself, it could be valued at $5 billion or more. That sort of price tag is now normal in AI silicon, where hope, hype and actual engineering are fighting for desk space.
Valuations in the sector are being closely watched following Cerebras’ recent IPO. Other buyers could enter the picture if Tenstorrent decides to run a sale process.
Tenstorrent is not only sniffing at a sale. It is talking to potential investors about a fresh funding round. That keeps both paths open, either a takeover or another dose of outside cash. Startups often run this sort of dual-track process because it lets them compare deal terms before choosing which door to walk through.
Tenstorrent competes with Nvidia in the AI inference chip market, where demand for AI workload silicon has pulled in investors. For Intel, buying Tenstorrent could help strengthen its AI hardware position.
Chipzilla has been trying to rebuild its competitiveness in the chip market, with mixed results and plenty of PowerPoint slides. For Qualcomm, Tenstorrent would expand its AI chip portfolio beyond mobile and edge devices.
Both companies are hunting for more ways into AI as Nvidia continues to dominate the market. Even so a deal worth $5 billion or more would be a chunky bet on AI chips.
Given current demand, investors seem willing to pay a premium for anything that might dent Nvidia’s lead.
No deal has been confirmed and the talks remain at an early stage. Any transaction still depends on Tenstorrent deciding it wants to sell, rather than take more funding and keep playing the long game.
