[INTERVIEW] Why Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller isn't worried about Nvidia

Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller

The Toronto-based chip design startup Tenstorrent is unbothered by Nvidia's unflagging dominance over the semiconductor space — because the AI market, according to CEO Jim Keller, is “not a zero-sum game.”

Eyeing a fast-expanding market, the eight-year-old company aims to offer a diverse mix of solutions — including designs, monolithic chips, chiplets, and full systems — to cater to the ever-diversifying demands of the AI world.

“Nvidia had good products with good customers, but there's a whole bunch of other customers where they don't serve their needs,” said Keller in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Friday at Tenstorrent's just-opened Korean office in Pangyo, Gyeonggi.

Keller is often referred to as a “chip legend” in the semiconductor industry, having worked for AMD, Apple, Tesla and Intel on developing significant chip architecture and microarchitecture such as AMD's K8 and Ryzen as well as Apple's A series for the iPhone.

“Intel had most of the PC chips for years, but there were 50 other successful companies that sold silicon for other uses, and AI will be the same thing. Solutions for AI will be pretty diverse.”

Tenstorrent handles a handful of solutions, which is unique for a chip startup to take on, from the licensing of IP to the sale of rack-mounted systems.

“I've been told to focus on one segment, but the thing we actually focus on is the evolution of the AI models, which is happening pretty quickly,” he said. “We want to provide the tools to run all the new AI models pretty fast. [We want to offer] some sort of technologies like glass. They go into buildings, they go into cars. You don't say the glass is only for a certain segment.”

Nvidia's technical prowess undoubtedly plays a role in its market dominance — the American firm is currently the world's fourth most valuable company, with a market capitalization of more than $2 trillion — but conservative clients who are reluctant to change their chip partners also factor into its virtual monopoly.

Keller doesn't feel challenged on this front either.

If more than half of the $100 billion market is considered conservative, Keller said, that means “40 percent of the market isn't.”

“That's a $40 billion business, and that's a lot and it's still growing,” he said. “We don't have to invade [Nvidia] anywhere. When a business turns into something like AMD versus Intel, they have all these people study who's selling what to who because it was two suppliers into 10 customers. Right now, the market is big, and it's growing, and there's a lot of different needs.”

Keller expects the prices of AI chips, currently soaring, to fall as more competitors, Tenstorrent included, enter the market with capable solutions at lower price points.

“Our technical strategy is to use lower-cost DRAM [dynamic random-access memory] to package and design,” the CEO said. “From a business point of view, whenever something grows really fast, prices go up. When the growth slows down, and more people enter the markets, prices come down. I think it's going to get very competitive in the next couple of years.”

The economic cycle, he predicts, will also contribute.

“The big buyers, if their business weakens, especially after they just bought an awful lot of AI computers, they'll probably slow down orders.”

Tenstorrent is a familiar name in Korean business due to its array of partnerships with Korean companies including Samsung Electronics. The startup became one of the first clients of the Korean chipmaker's fabrication plant in Taylor, Texas. Its Quasar chiplets, slated for a 2024 release, will be manufactured there on 4-nanometer nodes.

When asked whether Samsung's delay of the Taylor facility's mass production from the latter half of this year to next year has impacted his company's production timeline, Keller said the prototype in question is already in production.

“We will tape it out this year, and we will have chips back at the end of this year or early next year.”

Tenstorrent also raised $50 million from Hyundai Motor Group as part of a strategic relationship. The two now collaborate on projects related to self-driving cars, robots and air mobility.

Keller admitted, however, that such self-driving car technology is at the incomplete moment.

“There's still a way to go,” he said.

“But a lot of people tend to think that if it didn't go to the moon, it's a failure. But when smartphone first came out, they were good but they weren't very good. It took 10 years. So autonomous driving will get better over the next 10 years.”

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]