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The deal will see HPE merge Determined AI’s machine learning platform with its high-performance computing services.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has acquired artificial intelligence start-up Determined AI to bolster its high-performance computing services.
Determined AI, based in San Francisco, develops an open-source platform for building and training machine learning models.
HPE said it plans to combine the start-up’s software stack with its AI and high-performance computing (HPC) offerings to improve machine learning models used in various industries.
“Determined AI’s unique open-source platform allows ML [machine learning] engineers to build models faster and deliver business value sooner without having to worry about the underlying infrastructure,” Justin Hotard, senior vice-president and general manager of high-performance computing at HPE, said.
No financial terms for the deal have been disclosed. The start-up had raised more than $13m, with backers such as Google Ventures and LG. It was founded in 2017 by Ameet Talwalkar, Evan Sparks and Neil Conway.
Optimising machine learning models at scale remains a challenge for any company using AI to make sense of huge amounts of data and in operating high-performance computing power.
According to HPE, Determined AI’s open-source platform makes it easier for companies to configure and manage their machine learning development.
“Over the last several years, building AI applications has become extremely compute, data and communication intensive,” Determined AI chief executive Sparks said. “By combining with HPE’s industry-leading HPC and AI solutions, we can accelerate our mission to build cutting-edge AI applications and significantly expand our customer reach.”
For HPE, the deal adds another string to its bow in high-performance computing, a segment it is putting increasing resources behind to drive forward AI and machine learning by using computing power to ramp up the training of AI models.
A study by Intersect360 Research found that the HPC market is expected to reach almost $55bn in revenue by 2024.
One of HPE’s major plays in this arena is its GreenLake cloud service, which provides services for high-performance computing and AI solutions as part of its fully managed service for businesses.
