Qualcomm eyes $8-10 billion Tenstorrent acquisition in major AI chip and RISC-V power play

Qualcomm Pursues Major AI Chip Acquisition

Qualcomm is in discussions to acquire Tenstorrent, an AI chip startup led by legendary processor architect Jim Keller, in a deal valued between $8 billion and $10 billion, according to a report from The Information 1

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. The talks are ongoing, and there is no guarantee a deal will be reached 2

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. The price could change, or discussions could fall apart entirely 3

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. It remains unclear whether the valuation includes performance-based milestone payments, a structure commonly used in past chip startup acquisitions 3

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. If completed, this Qualcomm acquisition of Tenstorrent would rank among the company's most expensive transactions and represent a massive premium over Tenstorrent's previous valuation of around $3.2 billion when it sought $800 million in funding last year 1

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Strategic Focus on RISC-V Based Processors and AI Hardware Acquisition

Qualcomm is particularly interested in Tenstorrent's RISC-V-based AI accelerators and data center-grade CPU IP 1

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. Founded in 2016, the Canadian AI chip startup develops accelerators for training AI models and running AI applications 3

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. Tenstorrent's Galaxy Blackhole AI compute platform, which launched earlier this year, packs 32 Blackhole accelerators—each containing 768 RISC-V cores—into a 6U enclosure running its own software stack 2

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. The move would fit with Qualcomm's datacenter ambitions and bullish statements about AI opportunities made by CEO Cristiano Amon 2

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. Qualcomm is keen on RISC-V, especially following its licensing court battle with Arm architecture designer Arm, which sought to terminate Qualcomm's license to create its own Arm-based processor silicon 2

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Expanding Qualcomm AI Ambitions Beyond Smartphones

One of the world's largest suppliers of smartphone chips, Qualcomm has increasingly sought to reduce its dependence on the cyclical handset market by expanding into high-growth segments such as data center processors and autonomous vehicle chips 3

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. The company already has its Qualcomm AI200 and AI250 AI accelerators based on Hexagon neural processing units customized for data center AI workloads due to ship in 2026 1

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. In December, Qualcomm acquired Ventana Micro Systems, another company designing RISC-V CPUs targeting datacenter and enterprise applications, with financial details estimated between $200 million and $600 million 2

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. Amon discussed Qualcomm's broader AI strategy on CNBC's "The Tech Download" podcast, revealing the company is developing more than 40 new AI-powered devices including smart jewelry, camera-equipped earbuds, pins, and watches that function as personal AI agents 4

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Acquiring Elite Engineering Talent and Future Architecture

While the valuation appears steep, the most compelling rationale centers on people rather than products. Tenstorrent has assembled one of the industry's strongest collections of CPU, AI, interconnect, compiler, and systems architects 1

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. Jim Keller, known for his design work at AMD, Apple, and on DEC's Alpha chips, leads the startup 2

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. Keller also oversaw Tesla's efforts to design a chip for autonomous driving 3

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. The company has spent years hiring engineers from AMD, Apple, Intel, Tesla, and others 1

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. Qualcomm has consistently demonstrated willingness to spend billions acquiring elite engineering teams rather than building them from scratch. The Nuvia acquisition provides the best precedent: Qualcomm bought Nuvia not because it lacked Arm licenses or CPU design capability, but to acquire the team led by Gerard Williams III and accelerate its CPU roadmap by years with the Oryon IP 1

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. A Tenstorrent acquisition would make Qualcomm the leading developer of RISC-V-based solutions while providing extensive RISC-V expertise 1

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. Qualcomm shares on NASDAQ:QCOM were down 0.42% at $219.89 following the report 4

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