In a strategic move to enhance its AI infrastructure offerings, British neocloud company Nscale has announced the acquisition of Anyscale, a software startup specializing in scaling AI workloads across data centers and servers. The deal is valued at $1.65 billion.
Anyscale, founded by the creators of the open-source Project Ray, initially developed a platform to manage projects requiring substantial computing power. With the rise of AI technologies like GPT-3 in 2022, Anyscale shifted its focus to provide services for training and deploying large language models, data curation, inference, and reinforcement learning. Their platform, built around Ray, offers developers tools for observability and orchestration.
This acquisition aligns with Nscale’s strategy to build a vertically integrated AI infrastructure. The company has established divisions across energy, data centers, and orchestration software. By incorporating Anyscale’s expertise, Nscale aims to offer comprehensive workload management and scaling solutions.
Anyscale’s statement highlighted the synergy between the two companies, emphasizing that co-designing the software and infrastructure layers will lead to more effective optimization than working independently.
Earlier this year, Nscale secured $2 billion in a Series C funding round, valuing the company at $14.6 billion. Investors include industry leaders such as NVIDIA, Nokia, Blue Owl, Dell, and Aker ASA. Nscale has been actively expanding its partnerships, collaborating with Microsoft, British Telecom, and Nordcraft to enhance its compute and data center capabilities.
Anyscale, valued at $1.38 billion during its 2022 Series C round, reported a 70% increase in revenue in its most recent quarter compared to the previous one. Post-acquisition, Anyscale will continue to operate under its existing brand, serving its current customer base. All 200 of Anyscale’s employees will join Nscale as part of the deal.
This acquisition signifies Nscale’s commitment to owning more of the AI compute stack, positioning itself as a comprehensive provider in the rapidly evolving AI infrastructure landscape. By integrating Anyscale’s capabilities, Nscale is poised to offer end-to-end solutions, from energy and data centers to workload management and scaling, meeting the growing demands of AI-driven enterprises.
