Nvidia is playing hardball when it comes to artificial intelligence. CNBC has reported that Nvidia has just shelled out over $900 million to hire Enfabrica CEO Rochan Sankar and other employees at the artificial intelligence hardware startup, and to license the company’s technology.
According to two people familiar with the arrangement, in a deal reminiscent of recent AI talent acquisitions made by Meta and Google, Nvidia is paying cash and stock in the transaction.
Enfabrica is a Silicon Valley-based AI infrastructure startup focused on solving scalability and performance bottlenecks in large-scale AI datacenters. Its flagship product, the Accelerated Compute Fabric SuperNIC (ACF-S), is a hybrid chip and software solution that connects GPUs, CPUs, and other accelerators with high-speed, low-latency communication. This enables better resource sharing and dramatically improves utilization across AI clusters.
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Enfabrica’s innovations aim to replace traditional bottlenecks in memory access and interconnect with more flexible, cost-effective architectures. One such innovation is EMFASYS, a system that allows AI hardware to tap into larger pools of commodity DDR5 memory, reducing reliance on expensive high-bandwidth memory and lowering the cost per AI inference.
Backed by over $260 million in funding, including investment and collaboration with Nvidia, Enfabrica has quickly become a critical player in AI infrastructure.
The deal closed last week, and Sankar has joined Nvidia, according to CNBC sources.
This year, major tech companies like Meta, Google, and Nvidia have made significant moves in the AI talent acquisition space, reflecting the industry’s growing emphasis on artificial intelligence.
Meta’s strategic AI expansion
Meta has aggressively expanded its AI capabilities by establishing the Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), a division aimed at developing artificial general intelligence (AGI). To lead this initiative, Meta appointed Alexandr Wang, former CEO of Scale AI, and Nat Friedman, former CEO of GitHub. The company also recruited Daniel Gross, former CEO of Safe Superintelligence, and several researchers from OpenAI and Google DeepMind. These hires are part of a broader strategy to enhance Meta’s AI research and development efforts.
Google’s AI talent moves
Google has also been active in bolstering its AI team. While specific details about recent hires are limited, the company continues to invest in AI research and development to maintain its competitive edge in the industry.