The bankruptcy filing said it owes $128 million to creditors, including early backer Radical Ventures.
The remnants of Toronto-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip maker Untether AI have filed for bankruptcy.
Untether closed earlier this year and joined acquisition agreement with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a key competitor to both Intel and Nvidia, sending employees to develop artificial intelligence software and hardware. The fate of his assets and intellectual property remained unclear at that time. On October 14, Untether filed a lawsuit. notice of bankruptcy creditors and appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as its trustee.
Untether has nearly $25 million in assets and just over $128 million in liabilities.
Bankruptcy documents cite “lack of working capital/financing” as the reason for Untether's financial difficulties. This is reported by the Globe and Mail. Earlier this year, Nvidia's dominance of the artificial intelligence chip market and economic uncertainty due to US tariffs undermined Untether's fundraising efforts, leading to a deal to acquire AMD.
BetaKit reached out to Untether AI for comment on the bankruptcy but did not receive a response by publication deadline.
According to its statement of affairs, Untether has nearly $25 million in assets (in cash) and just over $128 million in liabilities to unsecured creditors, leaving a deficit of $103.6 million. Untether's only other assets besides cash are intellectual property and laboratory equipment, each valued at one dollar. Statement of Affairs signed by Untether Director Tomi Putanen, Co-Founder and Partner early sponsor of Untether Radical enterprises.
Untether's investors are among its largest unsecured creditors, including $33 million from Middlefield Ventures, $28.5 million split between two Radical Ventures funds, nearly $20 million from TCM-Untether Holdings, $18.3 million between two funds. General Motors Venture capital funds and $14.8 million to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
CONNECTED: American processor giant AMD acquires Untether AI team
Untether AI was founded in 2018 by Martin Snelgrove, Darrick Wiebe and Raymond Cheek to develop chips designed to help AI workloads “run faster and cooler.” Untether has positioned its chips as faster and more power-efficient than their competitors, claiming they offer “power-centric AI inference acceleration from the edge to the cloud.”
Since its inception, Untether AI has raised US$152 million (approximately C$208 million), including US$125 million in funding in 2021. At the beginning of 2024 the company called Intel Veteran Chris Walker to replace Arun Iyengar, who led Untether AI as CEO for most of its existence. Walker then told BetaKit that the company was raising funds. According to his LinkedIn profile, Walker left Untether AI a month before the AMD deal.
Tariffs have forced other Canadian companies into bankruptcy this year, including a Montreal-based online fashion retailer. meaning and a Toronto-based sleep technology company. WITHmart Nora. Untether's deal with AMD also reflects steady flow Canadian AI hardware companies seeking US support, including Nvidia acquisition of CentML and Tenstorrent change of residence to the south in search of funding.
Snelgrove, Chick and other Untether members team since founded in Toronto Hepzibah continue his work in the field of energy-efficient computing architecture. Two Small Fish Ventures co-founder Allen Lau told BetaKit in March that his firm invested an unknown amount was given to Hepzibah last year.
Image provided Untie the AI.
