AI chip startup Tenstorrent has become a "hot commodity"! It is rumored that Intel Corporation and Qualcomm are interested in acquiring with a valuation potentially exceeding $5 billion.

At a time when challenging NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA.US) and AMD (AMD.US) is gaining market attention, artificial intelligence (AI) chip startup Tenstorrent is attracting preliminary acquisition interest from potential buyers and is expected to usher in new development opportunities. According to sources familiar with the matter, Tenstorrent's chips are said to be more efficient in running certain AI workloads, and the company has already been in contact and discussions with industry companies including Intel Corporation (INTC.US) and Qualcomm (QCOM.US). Insiders have revealed that Tenstorrent has been communicating with investment banks recently to evaluate various strategic options, including selling the company. They also mentioned that if Tenstorrent decides to sell itself, other chip companies may also join the bidding. Some sources have stated that in a potential transaction, Tenstorrent's valuation could exceed $5 billion, or even higher, depending on how the AI chip sector performs following Cerebras Systems' recent initial public offering (IPO). Sources added that while engaging with potential acquirers, Tenstorrent is also actively pursuing a new round of funding and contacting potential investors. Chip manufacturers of all sizes are trying to seize talent and technology opportunities at the forefront of AI and inference technologies. Earlier reports indicated that Cerebras, which also focuses on AI-specific chips, had received acquisition offers from Arm (ARM.US) and its major shareholder SoftBank in the days leading up to its IPO. However, Cerebras declined the acquisition offer and completed its IPO last Wednesday at a price of $185 per share, higher than the upper limit of the offering range, raising $5.55 billion and becoming the largest IPO deal of the year. The stock surged 68% on its first day of trading. As of Monday's close, Cerebras' stock price rose by another 6% to $296.65, giving the company a market value of around $65 billion. The rapid evolution of the "inference chip" market landscape is making the valuation of startups like Tenstorrent more complex, and in some cases even driving valuations further upwards. Transactions such as NVIDIA Corporation's reported $200 billion acquisition agreement for some assets of Tenstorrent competitor Groq Inc., and SambaNova Systems Inc., backed by Intel Corporation's global strategic investment and venture capital arm Intel Capital, launching a new round of funding, have prompted industry players to reassess their strategic value to well-funded large companies in the AI ecosystem. There were reports in November last year that Tenstorrent was in talks for a new financing round led by existing investor Fidelity Management, planning to raise hundreds of millions of dollars with a pre-funding valuation of around $3.2 billion.