Qualcomm in talks to buy AI chip startup Tenstorrent for $10 billion

Qualcomm is in talks to acquire AI chip startup Tenstorrent for between $8 billion and $10 billion, a deal that would signal how aggressively the company wants to loosen Nvidia’s grip on the AI-chip stack. The discussions are still fluid and could be rewritten or collapse entirely, but even the size of the reported price points to how valuable AI talent, chip design expertise and alternative architectures have become. Qualcomm shares fell about 1% in extended trading after the report.

For Qualcomm, the timing fits a broader shift. The company has spent years trying to move beyond its dependence on the handset market, expanding into data-center processors and chips for autonomous vehicles as AI demand reshapes competition. It is also preparing for Investor Day 2026 on June 24 in New York, where executives plan to lay out the next phase of its growth and diversification strategy amid rapid AI development and gigawatt-scale data centers. In its fiscal 2025 results, announced Nov. 5, 2025, Qualcomm said it delivered record QCT revenue, 18% year-over-year growth in non-Apple QCT revenue and $12.8 billion in free cash flow. Management also said material data-center revenue is expected to begin in fiscal 2026.

Tenstorrent would bring Qualcomm more than just a product line. Founded in 2016 and led by chip veteran Jim Keller, the company focuses on accelerators used to train AI models and run AI applications. Tenstorrent says it is a U.S.-headquartered next-generation computing company with offices in Austin, Silicon Valley, Toronto, Belgrade, Seoul, Tokyo and Bangalore, and that it builds computers for AI using computer architecture, ASIC design, RISC-V technology, advanced systems and neural-network compilers. Keller is Tenstorrent’s chief executive, and the company says he previously served as senior vice president of Intel’s Silicon Engineering Group.

The reported price range would mark a huge jump from Tenstorrent’s last disclosed funding valuation. The startup said on Dec. 2, 2024, that it had raised more than $693 million in Series D financing at a $2 billion pre-money valuation. That gap underscores how fast the market has re-priced AI chip assets, especially firms that could help customers build around inference, edge devices and specialized architectures rather than only giant training systems.

Tenstorrent has already drawn early takeover interest from Intel and Qualcomm, a reminder that the semiconductor acquisition market is becoming more active as chipmakers look for talent, intellectual property and product road maps that can accelerate AI ambitions. For Qualcomm, buying Tenstorrent would be a bold wager that the next battleground is not just bigger data-center clusters, but the wider computing stack that moves AI into phones, PCs, cars and edge systems.