AMD has completed its acquisition of Silo AI, the largest private AI lab in Europe.

Accordingly, the all-cash transaction valued at approximately US$665 million furthers the company’s commitment to deliver end-to-end AI solutions. Specifically, based on open standards and in strong partnership with the global AI ecosystem.

Silo AI brings a team of world-class AI scientists and engineers to AMD experienced in developing cutting-edge AI models, platforms, and solutions for large enterprise customers. These include Allianz, Philips, Rolls-Royce, and Unilever. Moreover, their expertise spans diverse markets and they have created state-of-the-art open source multilingual Large Language Models (LLMs) including Poro and Viking on AMD platforms.

The Silo AI team will join the AMD Artificial Intelligence Group (AIG), led by AMD Senior Vice President Vamsi Boppana.

“AI is our number one strategic priority, and we continue to invest in both the talent and software capabilities to support our growing customer deployments and roadmaps,” said Vamsi Boppana, AMD senior vice president, AIG.

Propels AI Strategy

Silo AI CEO and co-founder Peter Sarlin will continue to lead the Silo AI team as part of the AMD Artificial Intelligence Group. The acquisition will likely conclude in the second half of 2024.

“Across every industry, enterprises are looking for fast and effective ways to develop and deploy AI solutions for their unique business needs,” said Vamsi Boppana, senior vice president of the Artificial Intelligence Group at AMD. “Silo AI’s team of trusted AI experts and proven experience developing leadership AI models and solutions. This includes state-of-the-art LLMs built on AMD platforms. Thus, this will further accelerate our AI strategy and advance the build-out and rapid implementation of AI solutions for our global customers.”

Based in Helsinki, Finland, with operations in Europe and North America, Silo AI specializes in end-to-end AI-driven solutions. Moreover, they 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 state-of-the-art open source multilingual LLMs, such as Poro and Viking, on AMD platforms in addition to its SiloGen model platform.

“At Silo AI, our mission from the start has been to build an AI flagship company. Today’s announcement is a logical next step in that pursuit as we join forces with AMD to shape the future of AI computing,” said Peter Sarlin, CEO and co-founder of Silo AI.

Furthermore, Sarlin said, “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.”

Series of Investments

Silo AI marks the latest in a series of acquisitions and corporate investments to support the AMD AI strategy. Specifically, AMD has invested over US$125 million across a dozen AI companies in the last 12 months. Moreover, it also acquired Mipsology and Nod.ai to expand the AMD AI ecosystem, support partners and advance leadership AMD computing platforms.

“Silo AI has been a pioneer in scaling large language model training on LUMI. (It is) Europe’s fastest supercomputer powered by over 12,000 AMD Instinct MI250X GPUs,” said Dr. Pekka Manninen, Director of Science and Technology at CSC-IT Center for Science, Finland. “Together with university collaborators, they have trained state-of-the-art open-source models for EU languages. Among them, the Nordic Poro and Viking models. We have collaborated extensively with the team in optimizing the software layer, allowing for efficient training of AI models on LUMI.”

14 August 2024