Nvidia is reportedly in talks to acquire Run:ai, an Israeli startup that provides an artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure orchestration and management platform.
The potential deal, which is in advanced negotiations, could total “many hundreds of millions of dollars” or as much as $1 billion, Calcalist reported Sunday (March 17), citing unnamed sources.
Reached by PYMNTS, an Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment on the report.
Run:ai did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
The Run:ai platform for AI clouds pools and shares GPUs, automatically assigning computing power in the necessary amount to where it’s needed, according to the report.
This report comes at a time when Nvidia is on the verge of overtaking Apple as the world’s second-most valuable company, having seen its valuation leap from $1 trillion to over $2 trillion in nine months.
This surge has been driven by interest in AI — and the fact that Nvidia holds an 80% share of the high-end AI chip market.
It was reported that smaller AI firms experienced a rally Feb. 15 after Nvidia disclosed its stake in them as of Dec. 31.
Among the firms mentioned in the report were chip designer Arm Holdings, biotech firm Recursion, conversational voice assistant developer SoundHound AI, medical device company Nano-X Imaging and autonomous driving technology company TuSimple Holdings.
Nvidia abandoned a planned $40 billion acquisition of Arm Holdings in 2022 amid close scrutiny from regulators around the world, who worried it would give Nvidia an unfair advantage in the semiconductor industry.
In another recent development in the AI space, it was reported Thursday (March 14) that Apple acquired Canadian AI startup DarwinAI earlier this year but has not officially announced the move.
Apple told Bloomberg that it sometimes buys smaller technology companies but does not discuss its plans.
DarwinAI is known for developing AI technology that visually inspects components during manufacturing, and its expertise in creating smaller, faster AI systems aligns with Apple’s focus on running AI on devices rather than solely on cloud-based solutions, according to that report.
In August, OpenAI acquired consumer-facing AI specialist Global Illumination, saying the team from Global Illumination will work on OpenAI’s core products.
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