Tenstorrent raises $1.5 billion at a $6.2 billion valuation to scale its Galaxy servers

Tenstorrent, the AI chip company led by Jim Keller, has closed $1.5 billion in Series E funding at a $6.2 billion post-money valuation, the company said on 19 October 2026 [1]. Reuters reported that the round more than doubles the startup's valuation from its previous raise in December 2024 [2].

Who invested in Tenstorrent's Series E?

Tenstorrent closed $1.5 billion in Series E funding at a $6.2 billion post-money valuation. Trace Capital and Innovation X led the round, joined by investors including ARK Invest, Morgan Stanley and Sandisk. Fidelity Management & Research Company and T. Rowe Price also took part [1].

The full list in Tenstorrent's announcement also names Agostinelli Group, Brett Barna, Cadence Ventures, Eclipse, Maverick Silicon, Protagonist, Tether Investments, Troluce Capital, Virtu Financial and XTX Markets [1]. The company did not say which of them are new and which are existing backers.

Trace Capital was founded in 2026 by Ben Mahdavi, who previously co-founded Quiet Capital, according to the announcement [1]. Innovation X is a late-stage venture firm founded in 2016 by Roger Monteforte [1]. A Tenstorrent spokesperson told BetaKit that Canadian investors also took part but declined to name them [3].

What will Tenstorrent do with the money?

Tenstorrent says it will use the money to deploy Galaxy servers at scale and advance the AI and CPU IP it licenses. The company says the servers will keep serving open-weight models for language and video generation, and that the raise funds volume manufacturing and global commercial expansion [1].

Reuters described Galaxy as servers that combine dozens of Tenstorrent's AI chips to run chatbots, coding assistants and video generators [2]. BetaKit reported that the money will also go to next-generation hardware and hiring [3].

Tenstorrent licenses its TT-Ascalon RISC-V CPU and Tensix AI cores to chip designers including Samsung and LG, according to the company [1]. RISC-V is an open-source chip architecture that lets companies design processors without licence fees, Reuters noted [2].

George Bousis, co-founder and managing partner at Protagonist, said in the announcement that Tenstorrent's video generation results beat industry benchmarks ahead of his firm's expectations [1]. The announcement does not include benchmark data.

How fast has Tenstorrent's valuation grown?

Tenstorrent's previous round raised more than $693 million in December 2024 at a $2 billion pre-money valuation, led by Samsung Securities and AFW Partners, Reuters reported [2]. BetaKit put the post-money valuation of that Series D at $2.6 billion [3].

The Globe and Mail reported that the new round follows reports earlier this year that Intel and Qualcomm had both tried to buy Tenstorrent for upward of $5 billion [4]. According to BetaKit, Keller told EE Times he had met the chief executives of both companies to pitch Tenstorrent's hardware IP and that an IPO remained the target at that time. The spokesperson declined to comment on those reports [3].

Who is Tenstorrent?

Tenstorrent builds RISC-V-based AI processors and systems and sells them from single cards and workstations up to racks and superclusters, with an open-source software stack [1]. Keller previously designed chips at Apple, AMD and Tesla [1][2].

The company was founded in Toronto in 2016 and moved its headquarters to the United States in 2023, BetaKit reported [3]. BetaKit reported that Toronto remains its largest office, with 200 of its 1,000 employees, a figure The Globe and Mail also gives [3][4].

Our read

Opinion: Investors are paying for an alternative to Nvidia that sells both finished servers and the blueprints to build your own chips. The bet is that open-weight models and companies designing their own silicon leave room for another supplier. The $6.2 billion price holds up only if Galaxy ships in volume, and the announcement gives no revenue or order figures to show that yet.

What we could not verify

• Tenstorrent did not disclose revenue, orders or how much each investor put in.
• A spokesperson declined to tell BetaKit whether the round included secondary share sales or how much Tenstorrent has raised in total.
• The Intel and Qualcomm takeover interest comes from earlier media reports cited by The Globe and Mail and BetaKit; Tenstorrent declined to comment on them.
• Sources describe the December 2024 round differently: Reuters gives a $2 billion pre-money valuation, BetaKit a $2.6 billion post-money valuation. We did not see the 2024 terms.
• Reuters calls Tenstorrent Santa Clara-based, The Globe and Mail calls it Austin-based; the announcement lists both among its locations.
• The announcement marks T. Rowe Price with an asterisk; we could not see the note it refers to.