Rapidus and Tenstorrent to develop AI semiconductor IP
Japanese chipmaker Rapidus Corp has formed a partership with Canada's AI specialist Tenstorrent to mass produce semiconductors for artificial intelligence applications.
The two companies will to jointly develop semiconductor IP (design assets) in the field of AI edge devices based on 2nm logic semiconductors. They say the resultant chips will consume less electricity than today's equivalent products.
"I am very pleased to be working with Tenstorrent," said Atsuyoshi Koike, President and CEO of Rapidus Inc. "We are both unique startup companies, and I am confident that this collaboration will lead to major innovations based on AI."
"Japan is very important both to Tenstorrent and to me personally," said David Bennett, Chief Customer Officer of Tenstorrent. "We have tremendous momentum with our customers in the Asia Pacific region right now, and I am proud that we can start talking about all the things we are doing in Japan. We are excited about the bold and aggressive moves that Japan is making to take advantage of its legacy of excellence in semiconductor technology and its incredible engineering talent base."
The new announcement marks another milestone for Radius. In September, it began construction of IIM (Innovative Integration for Manufacturing) in Chitose City, Hokkaido. This will be Japan's first facility for the production of state-of-the-art logic semiconductors at 2-nanometers (nm) and beyond.
The company is also planning to acquire EUV lithography technology, which is essential for the production of cutting-edge semiconductors, from imec. Rapidus plans to start operation of a pilot production line at IIM-1in April 2025, and begin mass production in 2027.
Canadian startup Tenstorrent developes AI processors and servers, and also owns RISC-V CPU IP which it licenses to customers around the world.
