LG Electronics, Tenstorrent in strategic tie-up for AI chip advancement

South Korea’s home appliances giant LG Electronics Inc. and Toronto-based fabless AI chip designer Tenstorrent Inc. have agreed to expand their partnership to enhance their capabilities in developing artificial intelligence chips.

LG said on Tuesday its Chief Executive Cho Joo-wan, who also goes by his English name William Cho, met with Jim Keller, CEO of Tenstorrent, at the LG Twin Tower in Seoul to discuss strategic collaboration.

Key executives from each company attended the meeting, including LG Chief Technology Officer Kim Byoung-hoon and Tenstorrent’s Chief Customer Officer David Bennett.

LG said the two leaders agreed to expand collaboration, building on their initial chiplet project to develop system-on-chips (SoCs).

Through their strengthened partnership, LG aims to enhance its design and development capabilities for AI chips tailored to its products and services.

Recognizing the critical role of high-performance AI semiconductors in implementing AI technology, LG recently established an SoC R&D center to focus on system semiconductor design and development.

“Tenstorrent is bringing the industry’s best AI and RISC-V technology to this collaboration,” said the LG CEO.

TO LEVERAGE MUTUAL IPs

Tenstorrent is renowned for its ability to design world-class high-performance computing (HPC) semiconductors using its RISC-V IP.

During their meeting, LG said the two CEOs explored opportunities to leverage their intellectual properties, design assets and technologies, aiming to create synergy across business areas such as AI home appliances, smart home products, future mobility and video processing tech for data centers.

The two leaders agreed to cooperate to enhance next-generation system semiconductors' capabilities, including RISC-V and chiplets.

According to LG, the two companies are also considering establishing a long-term internship program as part of their collaboration.

“LG has a strong SoC development organization and Tenstorrent is excited to continue to partner with them,” said Tenstorrent CEO Keller. “Customers are looking for customizable solutions – our AI and RISC-V technology enables LG to own their silicon future.”

Chiplet technology integrates multiple chips into a single package. Demand for chiplets is growing rapidly amid the ongoing AI boom because they can significantly improve chip performance while consuming less power.

LG said system chips used in its key products have all been developed led by its SoC Center. LG’s proprietary AI chip for home appliances, DQ-C, and the LG α (Alpha) 11 AI Processor for OLED TVs, have strengthened LG's leadership in the global AI appliances and premium TV markets.

LEGENDARY CHIP ARCHITECT

Established in 2016, Tenstorrent specializes in designing and developing advanced processors for AI and machine learning (ML) workloads.

The company is one of several startups looking to challenge Nvidia Corp., the market leader in supplying chips to develop AI products such as ChatGPT.

With US offices in Austin, Texas and Silicon Valley, and global offices in Belgrade, Tokyo and Bangalore, the AI chip startup has expertise in computer architecture, ASIC design and neural network compilers.

CEO Keller is a prominent computing chip architect, who previously worked at Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Inc.

He has been a key player in chip advances at multiple companies. He also worked on some of Apple Inc.’s early proprietary processors.

At Tesla Inc., he helped the electric vehicle giant design a chip at the heart of its autonomous driving computing system.

Tenstorrent makes its own AI chips but also sells its intellectual property and other technology to customers looking to make their own.

Last year, Hyundai Motor Co. invested in Tenstorrent and agreed to jointly develop next-generation chips for future mobility vehicles and robots.

Tenstorrent also works with Samsung Electronics Co. on a foundry basis.

Write to Chae-Yeon Kim at why29@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.