AMD Acquires Nod.ai to Enhance Its AI Software Ecosystem

AMD has announced the acquisition of Nod.ai, an open-source AI software provider, as part of its strategy to strengthen the ecosystem of AI development tools, libraries, and models compatible with its hardware. The deal is anticipated to be finalized within this quarter, according to CNBC, although AMD has not disclosed specific terms of the acquisition.

AMD's Senior Vice President, Vamsi Boppana, highlighted that the addition of Nod.ai will greatly enhance the company’s capacity to offer customers software solutions that simplify the deployment of high-performing AI models tailored for AMD hardware. “The skilled team from Nod.ai will accelerate our progress in open-source compiler technology, enabling efficient, high-performance AI solutions across the entire AMD product lineup,” Boppana stated. He emphasized that Nod.ai’s technologies are already being implemented across various platforms, including the cloud, edge devices, and numerous endpoint devices.

Founded in 2013 and based in Santa Clara, Nod.ai was co-founded by Anush Elangovan and Harsh Menon. Elangovan is a former member of the pioneering Chromebooks team at Google and a lead engineer at Cisco. Menon previously worked at Kitty Hawk, a now-defunct electric aircraft venture backed by Google co-founder Larry Page. Initially targeting the gaming market, Nod.ai focused on gesture recognition and motion tracking, but the company later shifted to developing AI model tooling. They created modules that minimize the manual optimization and deployment efforts required by AI developers, especially for AMD-powered systems as well as data centers and edge machines.

While AMD's rival Nvidia offers similar software solutions designed to accelerate AI model performance, its offerings are predominantly closed-source, proprietary, and intended for use with Nvidia's own GPUs.

Before its acquisition, Nod.ai had raised over $20 million in venture funding from investors such as Atlantic Bridge, Square Capital, PointGuard Ventures, and Walden International. Notably, Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency firm co-founded by the now-embattled Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX, was reportedly involved in a Nod.ai funding round. However, Elangovan clarified in a December statement to the Financial Times that Nod.ai had “not been a recipient of FTX/Alameda funding.”

“Our team at Nod.ai is dedicated to solving problems quickly in an ever-evolving industry,” stated Elangovan, who serves as the company’s CEO. “Our growth has established us as a key maintainer and significant contributor to some of the world's most critical AI repositories. By teaming up with AMD, we aim to extend our expertise to a wider global customer base.”

Nod.ai will integrate into the AI division that AMD established earlier this year, currently staffed by around 1,500 engineers. This group is expected to grow by an additional 300 employees by year-end as AMD intensifies its efforts to compete with Nvidia in the rapidly expanding AI chip market.