AI chip startup Tenstorrent to train Japan's engineers in $50M government deal

Japan has asked AI chip startup Tenstorrent to train up to 200 chip designers from the country at its US offices over the course of five years to help inject new blood into Japan’s semiconductor industry.

The contract, announced on Tuesday, is valued at $50 million, invested between both Tenstorrent and Japan's Semiconductor Technology Center (LSTC).

Tenstorrent said it will “train and elevate Japanese engineering talent while simultaneously cultivating a strong CPU team for the company in Japan.”

Program participants are to be nominated from large tech companies and universities in Japan, with the first cohort expected to start in April 2025. They will be trained on tech including Tenstorrent's RISC-V Ascalon design, Tensix IP, and AI and HPC software stacks for either one or two years before repatriating to their home country.

Both the engineers and Tenstorrent will get financial support from the Japanese government for the training program and the startup will get to keep any of the RISC-V chip blueprints made during the engineers' stay.

The goal is that the engineers will subsequently work for silicon design companies in Japan, and in return potentially license Tenstorrent’s technology.

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“This is a groundbreaking program between Tenstorrent and Japan, and sending Japan’s top engineers to become experts in Tenstorrent’s technology will be pivotal in growing their ecosystem and propelling forward our efforts here as we build our edge 2nm AI accelerator in partnership with them,” extolled LSTC charman Tetsuro Higashi.

Tenstorrent chief customer officer David Bennett said the deal was in addition to an already existing agreement with Japanese advanced logic semiconductors company Rapidus and would help train “Japan’s best and brightest in multiple disciplines related to high performance compute, AI hardware design and advanced software.”

Tenstorrent has linked-up with Rapidus to co-develop semiconductor IP for AI edge devices, which will be manufactured in Rapidus's planned, government-subsidized factory, and confirmed it will open a design center in Tokyo.

Japan’s semiconductor manufacturing thrived in the 80s when it controlled over half the market worldwide, but in the 90s, it began facing increased competition from the likes of South Korea and Taiwan. By 2019, Japan held only 10 percent of the global semiconductor industry.

Now the nation would like to revert back to its heyday, and is offering substantial subsidies and programs, like the ones granted to Rapidus and Tenstorrent, to get there. ®