Nvidia was one of Centai's early investors, taking part in Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-centric venture fund and other $37 million seed funding rounds.Dado Ruvic/Reuters
Canadian Machine Learning Efficiency Company Centml Inc. has been acquired by US technology giant Nvidia Corporation, the latest company recently featured in Canada.
The Toronto-based company, co-founded by Professor Gennady Pekimenko at the University of Toronto, University of Toronto, specializes in optimizing the way AI applications are run.
Sources familiar with the issue confirmed that Nvidia has obtained CENTML, which includes its technology and customer base. Globe and Mail does not identify sources as they are not allowed to speak publicly.
Nvidia was one of Centai's early investors, taking part in Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-centric venture fund and other $37 million seed funding rounds. A radical Toronto-based venture was also an investor.
The company halted its federal business registration on June 6, but continued to register at BC, according to a database managed by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.
At the same time, the company updated its BC registration with new director and delivery address information. The new listing directors are three NVIDIA executives with delivery addresses at the headquarters of the California chip maker.
One employee on LinkedIn said the company was acquired by Nvidia and updated its profile last month to show that more than dozens of other employees, including Pekhimenko, are working for Nvidia.
Pekhimenko is currently entitled as Senior Director of AI Software. Neither Pekimenko nor the company responded immediately to requests for comment Friday.
The acquisition was first reported by Logic on Friday afternoon.
One of CENTML's products is a platform that enables businesses to deploy AI models more efficiently. Reducing costs is a major incentive, but it also has environmental benefits.
Pekhimenko, a professor at AI's Vector Institute, founded CentML in 2022 with teams with experience at Nvidia, Google and Amazon.
CENTML is the second Canadian AI startup to be acquired by a US company in June.
Earlier this month, Globe reported that Chip Startup Untether AI had failed to raise funds and began closing after it reached a deal to transfer to advanced microdevice under a contract known as “Acquihire” rather than its intellectual property.
Designing energy-efficient computer chips for artificial intelligence applications such as self-driving cars, robots, and drones, Untether struggled to compete with Nvidia after being too late to serve the hardware market to power generative AI applications such as Openai's ChatGpt.
The economic uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump's tariff agenda also contributed to Untether's difficulties in raising new funds from investors this year, Globe reported.
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