Samsung Foundry Becomes Customer of AI Semiconductor Company 'Tenstorrent'... Expanding Opportunities in Rapidly Growing Market

Semiconductor Industry Legend Jim Keller's CEO Role
4nm Process Production Planned at US Taylor Plant

Samsung Expands AI Semiconductor Clients Domestically and Abroad
AI Semiconductor Market Growth Rate Expected to Surpass 20%

Samsung Electronics will produce products for the artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor company Tenstorrent at its foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) factory being built in Taylor, Texas, USA. Tenstorrent is led by Jim Keller, a legendary figure in the semiconductor industry, who serves as its CEO. Following the American AI semiconductor company Groq, Samsung Electronics is adding Tenstorrent as a client, thereby expanding its foundry business in the rapidly growing AI semiconductor market.

On the 2nd (local time), Tenstorrent announced that it will manufacture next-generation AI chiplet semiconductors at Samsung Electronics' foundry. A chiplet refers to semiconductors with different functions packaged together as one unit. Samsung Electronics plans to mass-produce Tenstorrent products using a 4-nanometer (nm; 1 nm is one billionth of a meter) process at the Taylor factory, which is scheduled to be completed within this year. These products are expected to be applied in various fields such as data centers in the future.

Tenstorrent is an AI semiconductor company established in Canada in 2016. Keller, who has worked as a semiconductor expert at major companies such as Intel, AMD, Apple, and Tesla, serves as its CEO. With a market value reaching 1 billion dollars, it is considered a unicorn in the semiconductor industry. In South Korea, Hyundai Motor Company has invested in Tenstorrent, and LG Electronics is collaborating with Tenstorrent in the semiconductor field.

Samsung Electronics' factory construction site in Taylor, Texas, USA /
[Photo by Kyung Kye-hyun, President of Samsung Electronics DS Division, from his social media account]

This is the second time an AI semiconductor company has become a client at Samsung Electronics' Taylor factory. Earlier in August, Groq announced that it would produce its AI accelerator chip, the LPU (Latency Processing Unit), at Samsung Electronics' foundry. It was also explained that this product would be manufactured at the Taylor factory based on the 4 nm process, similar to Tenstorrent.

By adding Tenstorrent as a client following Groq, Samsung Electronics is not only strengthening its competitiveness in advanced processes but also expanding its foundry presence in the high-growth AI semiconductor market. Market research firm Gartner expects the AI semiconductor market size to reach $53.4 billion this year, a 20.8% increase from last year's $44.2 billion. It also forecasts growth to $67.1 billion next year, a 25.7% increase from this year.

To expand its business in this market, Samsung Electronics is working with various AI semiconductor companies. In South Korea, AI semiconductor startups such as Rebellions, DeepX, and FuriosaAI are producing their products at Samsung Electronics' foundry. Choi Si-young, head of Samsung Electronics' Foundry Business Division, stated at a company event held in July, "We will lead the paradigm of the AI era through cutting-edge processes specialized for high-performance AI semiconductors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.