Multinational and semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has acquired its third AI company in less than a year, the latest move in its plan to build an AI stack to rival Nvidia.
AMD kicked things up when it announced a deal to acquire Finnish AI company Silo AI for US$665 million in cash.
According to reports, the company bought French AI interference startup Mipsology last August. Then it followed up its acquisition spree when it bought tiny open-source AI compiler outfit Nod.ai following in October.
At that time, those were considered "small, tactical acquisitions" which AMD said were a US$125 million investment in AI.
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In a statement, AMD said Silo AI CEO and co-founder Peter Sarlin will continue to lead the team as part of AMD’s artificial intelligence group, reporting to AMD senior vice president Vamsi Boppana.
The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2024.
“Silo AI’s team of trusted AI experts and proven experience developing leadership AI models and solutions, including state-of-the-art LLMs built on AMD platforms, will further accelerate our AI strategy and advance the build-out and rapid implementation of AI solutions for our global customers,” says Boppana.
“We have a well-established history of building successful AI products and delivering value to our customers. We look forward to becoming part of AMD to further scale our impact and develop enterprise solutions and AI models that address the most complex challenges with deploying AI at scale today,” says Silo AI CEO and co-founder Peter Sarlin.
Based in Helsinki, Finland, with operations in Europe and North America, Silo AI specializes in end-to-end AI-driven solutions that help customers integrate AI quickly and easily into their products, services and operations.
Their work spans diverse markets, with customers including Allianz, Philips, Rolls-Royce, and Unilever. Silo AI also creates open source multilingual LLMs, such as Poro and Viking, on AMD platforms in addition to its SiloGen model platform.
This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 12 July 2024.