Tenstorrent Raises $1.5 Billion in Series E, Rejects Qualcomm and Intel Acquisition Offers

Tenstorrent, an AI chip startup led by chip design veteran Jim Keller, announced a $1.5 billion Series E funding round at a $6.2 billion valuation on October 19, 2026, choosing independence over acquisition offers from Intel and Qualcomm that valued the company between $8 and $10 billion. The Santa Clara–based company, founded in 2016, designs RISC-V based AI processors and high-performance CPUs aimed at reducing dependency on Nvidia's proprietary ecosystem. The funding round, led by Trace Capital and Innovation X LLC with participation from ARK Invest, Fidelity Management & Research Company, T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley, and others, will fund the global deployment of Tenstorrent's Galaxy servers and the commercialization of its open-weight AI infrastructure.