Facilitating access to computing resources via the cloud is the promise of FlexAI, a start-up based in Paris which was unveiled on April 24 with capital of 28.5 million euros. His ambition? Allow developers with limited access to large amounts of computation to facilitate the training process.
FlexAI is a company founded by Brijesh Tripathi and Dali Kilani who previously worked at Intel, Tesla, Nvidia and Apple. In addition to offices in Paris, it has recently opened offices in San Francisco and Bangalore.
Facilitate access to computing resources for AI
To achieve its ambition, the start-up offers an on-demand cloud service whose launch will take place during the year 2024. Customers will only have to specify the different needs such as the model, its size and its priority, then FlexAI will find the necessary resources. Everything is billed per usage rather than hourly rental of a GPU.
FlexAI arrives at a time when AI’s voracious appetite for computing power is causing concern. The more time passes, the more considerable the costs become, swallowing up up to 80% of a company’s capital. By allocating the computing capacity required for a specific workload, the start-up ensures that its customers only pay for what they actually use. Two birds with one stone, since this will reduce the carbon footprint of AI.
We believe in the transformative power of AI to solve some of humanity’s biggest problems, but it will take 1,000 times more computing power to make this vision a reality. Today, the availability of AI computing is limited to a small number of people. Our vision is to unlock access to computing for as many people as possible.
Where the startup stands out is that it’s not limited to Nvidia GPUs. Developers will be able to train artificial intelligence applications with heterogeneous computer architectures. For example, development platforms like Intel Gaudi, AMD ROCm in addition to Nvidia Cuda.
“By facilitating access to computing resources”explains Dali Kilani, “we hope to launch a wave of unprecedented innovation, allowing companies and developers to allocate more of their budget and effort to innovation and research, rather than infrastructure”.
Among the investors behind the fundraising of 28.5 million euros, we find Alpha Intelligence Capital, Karim Beguir who is the director of InstaDeep, Partech, Motier Ventures, Elaia Partners and First Capital.
Several major partnerships established
Several testers were able to try FlexAI’s product in closed beta while the company considers partnering with several large suppliers. The goal is to integrate its solution into their platforms. FlexAI is already a partner of Mistral AI, InstaDeep, Nvidia, AMD, Intel, Amazon Web Services and HuggingFace. The startup also wants to set up its own data centers via debt financing at the end of 2024.