Nvidia is acquiring Run:ai, a Tel Aviv-based company that makes it easier for developers and operations teams to manage and optimize their AI hardware infrastructure, for an undisclosed amount.
Ctech reported earlier this morning that the companies were in “advanced negotiations” that could see Nvidia paying more than $1 billion for Run:ai. Obviously, the negotiations went off without a hitch.
Nvidia says it will continue to offer Run:ai products “under the same business model” for the immediate future and will invest in the Run:ai product roadmap as part of the DGX Cloud AI platform from Nvidia.
“Run:ai has worked closely with Nvidia since 2020 and we share a passion for helping our customers get the most out of their infrastructure,” said Omri Geller, co-founder and CEO of Run:ai, in a statement. “We are excited to join Nvidia and look forward to continuing our journey together.”
Geller founded Run:ai with Ronen Dar several years ago after studying together at Tel Aviv University under Professor Meir Feder, Run:ai’s third co-founder. The trio sought to create a platform that could “split” AI models into fragments that ran in parallel on hardware, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or at the edge.
Although Run:AI has relatively few direct competitors, other startups are applying the concept of dynamic hardware allocation to AI workloads. For example, Grid.ai offers software that allows data scientists to train AI models on GPUs, CPUs, and more in parallel.
But relatively early in its life, Run:AI managed to establish a large customer base of Fortune 500 companies, which in turn attracted venture capital investment. Prior to the acquisition, Run:ai had raised $118 million in capital from backers including Insight Partners, Tiger Global, S Capital and TLV Partners.
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