Nvidia continues acquisition streak with OctoAI
Nvidia has acquired OctoAI in its fifth deal this year, making it the chip giant’s most acquisitive year yet. The five-year-old startup creates software to improve the performance of machine learning models.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join NVIDIA and contribute to expanding efforts in ML compilers and cloud infrastructure for AI,” OctoAI CEO Luis Ceze posted on LinkedIn Wednesday.
OctoAI was founded by Luis Ceze, Jared Roesch, Tianqi Chen, Jason Knight, and Thierry Moreau in 2019, with Ceze as CEO.
Ceze has assumed the role of VP of AI systems software at Nvidia. He also remains a professor at the University of Washington, where the startup originated.
Machine learning compilers are software that act as translators between the model and the hardware it runs on — like Nvidia’s graphics processing units. OctoAI’s software was intended to make it easier for developers to use any AI hardware, not just hardware designed by Nvidia. OctoAI worked with Nvidia prior to the acquisition, along with AMD and AWS.
Nvidia has designed compilers too, and Ceze has praised Nvidia’s leadership in making machine learning more accessible.”Nvidia has been betting on AI for a long time. They have a level of software maturity that no other provider can match,” Ceze told B-17 last year. “With custom silicon for AI, there’s a strong need for a mature and easy-to-use system software stack,” he continued.
In March, OctoAI and Nvidia announced a partnership to optimize Nvidia’s NIM offering, or Nvidia Inference Microservices, which aims to allow companies to create their own custom AI.
OctoAI will shut down its commercial cloud service on October 31.
Nvidia continues to receive scrutiny from regulators around its acquisitions out of concern that they may make AI hardware and, increasingly AI software industries less competitive.
“One of the hardest judgment calls as an investor and board member is to assess the benefits and risks of selling a company at a key inflection point in the journey. Nvidia made a compelling case that the impact for the OctoAI team and technology would be maximized within the market leader for AI infrastructure,” Matt McIlwain, OctoAI investor and managing director of Madrona Venture Group posted to LinkedIn.
The Seattle-based startup raised $130 million in funding, according to Pitchbook — most recently an $85 million Series C round led by Tiger Global Management. OctoAI’s most recent valuation was $900 million in 2021, according to The Information. The publication also reported that OctoAI brought in revenue in the low single-digit millions last year.
Ceze did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nvidia declined to comment on the acquisition or confirm if the entire OctoAI team would join the company.
Several OctoAI employees had already updated their LinkedIn profiles to reflect Nvidia job titles as of Thursday morning.
