Qualcomm is in talks to acquire Tenstorrent, a startup that designs specialized chips for running AI models, according to The Information, which cited a person with direct knowledge of the deal. The two companies have discussed a price of between $8 billion and $10 billion.
The reported valuation marks a dramatic leap for Tenstorrent. According to The Information via Techmeme, the startup had discussed raising $800 million at roughly a $3.2 billion valuation as recently as last year — meaning the proposed acquisition price would represent a more than threefold jump in less than 12 months.
According to Reuters, the original report came from The Information. The Register characterized the potential deal as a "RISC-V power play," noting that Tenstorrent's chip designs are built around the open RISC-V processor architecture, and that an acquisition could represent a significant boost to that ecosystem.
Qualcomm's stock rose more than 4% on the news, according to Stocktwits. Yahoo Finance noted that the reported talks test both Tenstorrent's lofty valuation and Qualcomm's broader AI ambitions.
The deal, if completed, would signal Qualcomm's intent to compete more directly in the AI chip market currently dominated by Nvidia — and could make RISC-V a more serious challenger to the x86 and Arm architectures that underpin most of today's computing infrastructure.