Tether has expanded its artificial intelligence investment push with two major financing moves: joining Tenstorrent’s $1.5 billion Series E at a $6.2 billion post-money valuation and leading a $15 million Series A for New York-based fintech Mural.
On Oct. 20, Tether Capital announced participation in Tenstorrent's completed equity round, a day after the Santa Clara chipmaker disclosed the financing. Neither company revealed Tether’s investment amount, ownership stake or accounting treatment. Tenstorrent said the round was led by Trace Capital and Innovation X, with other participants including ARK Invest, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Morgan Stanley, Sandisk, T. Rowe Price, Eclipse and XTX Markets. Led by Jim Keller, Tenstorrent plans to use proceeds for Galaxy server production, AI and CPU chip development, and commercial expansion. Its open-source software stack supports local and on-premises AI model deployment. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said AI should be something people can 'build, run and control themselves,' tying the investment to Tether’s preference for independent AI systems.
Tether also led Mural’s $15 million Series A, announced Oct. 20, bringing the startup’s total funding to $28 million. North Island Ventures and existing investors participated. Mural, founded in 2022 by former Palantir engineers Sinclair Toffa and Chris Fernandes, provides accounts, payment instructions, identity verification and compliance infrastructure across banking networks and blockchains. The company reported processing $2.1 billion in payments across 128 countries since launching its API in 2025, with 2026 volume nearly six times its 2025 total. Customers include Deel, Opera and Axexo. Mural’s systems let businesses manage dollars, local currencies and stablecoins, with spending limits, approved counterparties and authorization thresholds for AI agents. Ardoino said the startup’s connection between enterprise software and stablecoin payments is essential 'as agents start moving money.'
The investments follow Tether’s earlier backing of AIsa and its recent offline speech recognition model, QVAC TranscribePsy. Tether previously disclosed $1.5 billion in Q2 profit, $187.75 billion in assets against $183.64 billion liabilities as of June 30, and an excess reserve buffer of $4.11 billion. On Aug. 13, Tether announced a KPMG audit covering 2025 financials showing reserves exceeding liabilities by $6.814 billion at Dec. 31, 2025.
