Ex-Tenstorrent exec's startup ai& deploys non-NVIDIA AI hardware in Japan
DavidBennett__ · x · 2026-09-12
Ian Cutress interviews David Bennett, ex-Tenstorrent executive and founder of ai& (aiand), a Japan-based startup converting brownfield sites into compute facilities that sell token access locally. The discussion covers what it's actually like to deploy AI hardware beyond the standard NVIDIA/AMD stack, against the backdrop of 1,000 startups (Tenstorrent, d-Matrix, Cerebras, SambaNova, etc.) challenging the incumbents, plus the power, water, and killer-app questions that follow.
Related event: Japanese neocloud ai& claims CUDA moat is gone, bets on Tenstorrent(2 posts)→
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