Nvidia (NVDA) is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire the Israel-based AI21 Labs for $2B to $3B, according to the Calcalist.
AI21 develops large language models and enables enterprises to build custom generative AI applications. It was co-founded in 2017 by Amnon Shashua, who is also the co-founder and CEO of Mobileye (MBLY).
The startup was last valued at $1.4B following a fundraising round in 2023 that was led by Nvidia (NVDA) and Google (GOOG)(GOOGL), the report said. The company has about 200 employees, many of whom have advanced degrees and extensive experience in AI development. This means Nvidia might be more interested in the skillset of AI21’s employees rather than the company’s technology itself.
Over the past several years, Nvidia has been active in acquiring Israeli tech companies. Last December, Nvidia closed on its acquisition of Run:ai, which makes AI chips more efficient and can reduce the number of GPUs needed to complete tasks. Terms of the deal were never disclosed, but previous media reports stated that Nvidia paid roughly $700M for the acquisition.
In the same year, Nvidia also acquired Deci, which modifies AI models to ensure they run more cheaply. And in 2019, Nvidia acquired Mellanox, a leading supplier of end-to-end Ethernet and InfiniBand smart interconnect solutions and services for servers and storage, for $6.9B.
Nvidia is building a research and development center in Kiryat Tivon, which is located south of Haifa. Nvidia CEO and co-founder Jensen Huang has described Israel as his company’s “second home,” according to Reuters.