Lisa Su, CEO, AMD
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
AMD introduced Tuesday it will acquire Nod.AI, an open-source AI software startup, so as to increase the chipmaker’s AI software operations.
Nod.AI, or Nod Labs, builds open-source applied sciences “for future AI programs,” in accordance to the startup, and it primarily makes a speciality of reinforcement studying, a kind of system that “learns” through trial and error.
The acquisition is a part of AMD’s “AI development technique” that it hopes will higher shore up its competitors in opposition to rival chipmaker Nvidia, which noticed its income spike greater than 100% 12 months over 12 months for the quarter ended July 30, 2023. During the identical time interval, AMD reported a revenue decline of 18% however nonetheless beat analysts’ estimates for gross sales and revenue.
“The acquisition of Nod.ai is anticipated to considerably improve our capacity to present AI clients with open software that permits them to simply deploy extremely performant AI fashions tuned for AMD {hardware},” Vamsi Boppana, SVP of AMD’s AI group, said in a launch.
Prior to founding Nod in 2013, Anush Elangovan, the startup’s CEO, was a part of the primary Chromebooks crew at Google and a lead engineer at Cisco. Harsh Menon, Nod’s co-founder and CTO, beforehand labored at Kitty Hawk, the electrical plane firm backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, which shut down in 2022.
Nod Labs was initially billed as an AI {hardware} firm specializing in gesture recognition and motion-tracking wearables, such as Bluetooth-connected rings to be used in gaming. (Think: Making a real-life hand gesture utilizing your thumb and forefinger to shoot a gun in a digital actuality sport.) The startup raised millions in funding from VC corporations like Menlo Ventures and Sequoia Capital, and crew members reportedly hailed from Apple, Google, Samsung and extra.
AMD and Nod.AI didn’t reply to requests for remark.