LG Electronics and Tenstorrent Expand AI Chip Partnership for Smart Home and Beyond

LG Electronics & Tenstorrent Expands "AI Chip" Partnership, Now Targeting To Provide Efficient AI Solutions

Tenstorrent and LG Electronics have expanded their collaboration on AI chip development, now focusing on efficient and on-device AI. Tenstorrent Secures A Major Customer For Its RISC-V Chips, Targeting On-Device AI & High-Performance Chips For LG [Press Release]: LG Electronics (LG) and Tenstorrent are pleased to announce an expanded collaboration, building on their initial chiplet project to develop System-on-Chips (SoCs) and systems for the global market. Through this partnership, LG aims to enhance its design and development capabilities for AI chips tailored to its products and services, aligning with its vision of "Affectionate Intelligence." LG is dedicated to advancing AI-driven innovation, with a focus on enhancing its AI-powered home appliances and smart home solutions, as well as expanding its capabilities in future mobility and commercial applications. Recognizing the critical role of high-performance AI semiconductors in implementing AI technology, LG plans to strengthen its in-house development capabilities while collaborating with leading global companies, including Tenstorrent, to boost its AI competitiveness. Tenstorrent is renowned for its ability to design world-class high-performance computing (HPC) semiconductors using its RISC-V1 IP (Ascalon) and AI IP (Tensix). Their IP is engineered to scale from milliwatts to megawatts, delivering exceptional efficiency and performance. Recently, LG CEO William Cho met with Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller at the LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, Seoul, to discuss strategic collaboration. The meeting was attended by key executives from both companies, including LG's CTO, Kim Byoung-hoon, and SoC Center Head, Kim Jin-gyeong, alongside Tenstorrent's CCO, David Bennett, and VP of Automotive, Thaddeus Fortenberry. During their discussions, the two companies explored opportunities to leverage their intellectual properties, design assets, and technologies, aiming to create synergies across various business areas including AI home appliances, smart home solutions, future mobility, and video processing solutions for the data center market. Both CEOs emphasized the importance of enhancing capabilities in next-generation system semiconductors, including RISC-V and chiplets, to navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Additionally, Tenstorrent and LG are considering the establishment of a long-term internship program as part of their collaboration. LG is committed to advancing its AI-related software and algorithm technologies to provide customers with products, platforms and services based on generative AI. This includes the development of AI chips to secure competitiveness in on-device AI technology. LG has a strong SoC development organization and Tenstorrent is excited to continue to partner with them. Customers are looking for customizable solutions - our AI and RISC-V technology enables LG to own their silicon future. - Jim Keller, CEO of Tenstorrent Meanwhile, LG has established a dedicated SoC R&D center specializing in system semiconductor design and development. The SoC Center excels in the design, development, and verification of these chips, focusing on advancing high-performance SoCs using the chiplet technology - a technology that integrates multiple chips into a single package, gaining attention due to the increasing demand for high-performance, low-power AI semiconductors. The system chips used in LG's key products have all been developed under the leadership of the SoC Center. LG's proprietary AI chip for home appliances, "DQ-C," and the "Alpha 11 AI Processor" for OLED TVs have significantly strengthened the company's leadership in the global AI appliance and premium TV markets. As AI becomes increasingly pivotal in the industry, the importance of system chip design capabilities is growing across all business areas. LG is continuously enhancing its system semiconductor design capabilities and linking them with AI-related software and algorithm technologies to proactively prepare for the future. Ultimately, the goal is to provide Affectionate Intelligence solutions in all everyday spaces, offering a differentiated customer experience.

LG working with Jim Keller on new 'Affectionate Intelligence' processor

Tenstorrent contract expands to creating AI SoCs for smart homes, video processing, and more. LG and Tenstorrent have announced that they will expand their collaboration efforts. The tech twosome already has some SoC plans in progress, but today they voiced the intention to develop new AI chips to push forward LS's concept of 'Affectionate Intelligence' in AI-powered home appliances, smart home solutions, mobility, and commercial applications. While Affectionate Intelligence may be merely LG's marketing Twist on AI, like Cupertino's 'Apple Intelligence,' we are sure there is some serious chip design going on in the background - thanks to chip icon Jim Keller's involvement and some other clues in today's press release. In our main picture, you can see LG CEO William Cho meeting with Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller at the LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, Seoul. Other senior execs were there, from both companies, to discuss the plans for expanded collaboration. Regular readers, with some familiarity with Tenstorrent's recent projects, won't be surprised that next-gen semiconductors including processors using the RISC-V architecture and multiple chiplets were hot topics during the discussions. The tech CEOs warmly praised each other, with Cho saying Keller's firm "is bringing the industry's best AI and RISC-V technology to this collaboration." Keller's response was that "LG has a strong SoC development organization and Tenstorrent is excited to continue to partner with them." The chip architecture icon behind the Athlon 64 and Zen architectures went on to underline that any future 'Affectionate Intelligence' SoCs would likely come packing "our AI and RISC-V technology." LG recently established a dedicated SoC R&D center specializing in system semiconductor design and development, which should help along any collaborative chip design efforts. According to the press release this facility excels in chiplet-based SoC design, development, and verification. SoCs that have already come from this lab include the DQ-C for AI home appliances and the Alpha 11 AI Processor for OLED TVs. Tenstorrent's success in expanding its LG collaboration seems very much in line with its publicly stated strategy of looking for design wins in markets "not well served by Nvidia." While Tenstorrent seems fully capable of designing high-performance RISC-V CPUs and AI accelerators like the Wormhole, a profitable high-volume niche in mass-market consumer goods could be a great opportunity to embrace.

LG discusses strategic cooperation with renowned chip designer Jim Keller

LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan, left, shakes hands with Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller during their meeting at the former's headquarters in Seoul, in this photo released, Tuesday. Courtesy of LG Electronics By Nam Hyun-woo LG Electronics CEO Cho Joo-wan met with Jim Keller, a renowned chip designer and CEO of U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor startup Tenstorrent, discussing strategic collaboration between the two sides for AI semiconductors, LG Electronics said Tuesday. According to the company, Cho and Keller recently met at LG Electronics' headquarters in Seoul and shared their ideas on cooperation in the semiconductor businesses. LG Electronics chief technology officer Kim Byoung-hoon and Tenstorrent's chief customer officer David Bennett also joined the meeting. Keller is a guru in designing central processing units (CPU) and other semiconductors, known for leading the development of IT company AMD's Athlon 64 and Zen architectures, which played a crucial role in AMD's bid to compete against Intel in the high-end CPU market. Tenstorrent specializes in designing high-performance computing semiconductors, leveraging its intellectual properties (IPs) such as the open-source, low-power Reduced Instruction Set Computer-V (RISC-V) CPU technology and the AI-specific Tensix neural processing unit. During the meeting, the two sides exchanged ideas on strengthening capabilities in system-on-chip (SoC) technologies, including those related to chiplets. A chiplet combines different chips into a package to serve specific functions. LG Electronics said the two sides plan to explore collaboration opportunities across AI appliances, smart home solutions, mobility and video-related server processors by leveraging their respective semiconductor IPs. Building on this partnership, LG Electronics said it plans to upgrade its AI-related software and algorithm technologies to roll out products, platforms and services using generative AI, as well as developing AI semiconductors to advance its on-device AI technology. "Tenstorrent's AI capabilities and RISC-V technology are the best-in-class in the industry," Cho said. "Through close cooperation, LG Electronics will realize its affectionate AI services that can understand the customer and provide unique experiences." According to LG Electronics, Keller said that the company was a global technology leader with an outstanding SoC development team, and their collaboration can deliver tailored solutions for customers.