Hyundai Motor Group announced a strategic investment in Tenstorrent, an artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor company based in Toronto, Canada, which will allow the Group to integrate AI into future Hyundai, Kia and Genesis vehicles, and other future mobilities, including robotics and advanced air mobility (AAM).

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation will invest US$50 million ($30 million and $20 million, respectively), making the Group the lead investor in Tenstorrent’s latest funding round, a total of US$100 million. The investment will be used to accelerate Tenstorrent’s design and development of AI chiplets and its machine learning (ML) software roadmap.

The Group expects to leverage Tenstorrent’s high-performance technologies and experience to jointly develop optimized semiconductors while strengthening its own technological capabilities. The newly developed high-performance semiconductors will be applied to central processing units (CPU) and neural processing units (NPU) for future vehicles and mobility solutions.

Tenstorrent’s high growth potential and high-performance AI semiconductors will help the Group secure competitive technologies for future mobilities. With this investment, the Group expects to develop optimized but differentiated semiconductor technology that will aid future mobilities and strengthen internal capabilities in AI technology development.

—Heung-soo Kim, Executive Vice President and Head of the Global Strategy Office (GSO) at Hyundai Motor Group

Hyundai Motor Group established the Semiconductor Development Group earlier this year. This specialized group is dedicated to customized semiconductor development for the Group's innovative mobilities, achieved through strategic collaborations with various external partners.

Founded in 2016, Tenstorrent focuses on designing and developing advanced processors to accelerate AI and ML workloads. Tenstorrent aims to create efficient and high-performance hardware solutions that enable deep learning at scale.

By working with the Group, Tenstorrent aims to enter the automotive sector based on its AI semiconductor core intellectual property (IP) competitiveness, a cadre of semiconductor experts and robust development direction.