Hyundai Motor Group to drive future mobility development with stake in AI firm

The Hyundai Motor Group announced that it will invest in an artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor company to drive the future of its brand’s future mobility solutions.

According to the conglomerate, it will make a US$50 million (approximately P2.776 billion) investment in Tenstorrent, a company based in Toronto, Canada. The said investment will allow Hyundai Motor Group to integrate AI into future Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis vehicles, as well as other future mobilities, including robotics and advanced air mobility.

With its investment, Hyundai Motor 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 and neural processing units 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,” commented Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice President and Head of Global Strategy Office Heung-soo Kim.

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

Hyundai Motor Group’s investment will allow Tenstorrent to accelerate the company’s design and development of AI chiplets and its ML software roadmap.

With fresh new funding and connections with the South Korean consortium, Tenstorrent aims to enter the automotive sector based on its AI semiconductor core intellectual property competitiveness, a cadre of semiconductor experts, and robust development direction.

“The trust in Tenstorrent shown by Hyundai Motor Group leading our round is truly humbling. It has been impressive watching Hyundai Motor Group become the third largest automaker in the world through their aggressive adoption of technology including their acquisition of Boston Dynamics, their joint venture with Aptiv, and now their investment in us,” Tenstorrent Chief Executive Officer Jim Keller said.

To note, Hyundai Motor Group has been investing in various companies whose specialties are in advanced technologies like BOS Semiconductors and Boston Dynamics.

Photos from Hyundai Motor Group and Tenstorrent

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