Samsung to fab chips for RISC-V processor world's Tenstorrent

AI chip startup Tenstorrent announced on Monday that it will use Samsung's foundry to manufacture its next generation of products, with both partners alluding to potential future RISC-V collaborations. "Samsung Foundry's commitment to advancing semiconductor technology aligns with our vision for advancing RISC-V and AI and …

[3arn0wl]

Hardly surprising really...

Samsung expressed their interest in RISC-V as far back as 2017, and started incorporating RISC-V cores into their tech in 2020.

I expect to see Samsung devices with RISC-V primary processors in the relatively near future.

[Justthefacts]

Re: Hardly surprising really...

This is Samsung foundry, not Samsung product manufacturing. Foundries take money to manufacture whatever Tenstorrent order.

The only Samsung interest here is that they have apparently invested $50M in Tenstorrent…..which will be mostly going to pay foundry fees. Left hand shaking right hand. Except, if you look at this article, you’ll realise that Tenstorrent total raise is $234M (rest from Hyundai, Kia). Of which maybe 60% will be Foundry costs, say $140M. And since Samsung invested, they get to steer that spend to Samsung Foundry rather than TSMC, so Foundry makes around 30% margin on that $140M….which just happens to equal the $50M “invested”. They will have worked out the numbers much more precisely than me, so that this exactly balances.

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/ai-chip-firm-tenstorrent-raises-234211137.html

Samsung as a whole didn’t spend a penny, even if their “investment” zeroes. This is the way Samsung does business, they are very smart. Smart money doesn’t invest in RISCV, smart money sells shovels to dumb money digging it’s own grave.