The Calcalist financial daily reported on Tuesday that Nvidia is in advanced negotiations to acquire Israel-based AI startup AI21 Labs at a valuation of up to $3 billion.
Nvidia declined to comment, and AI21 was not immediately available to comment. A 2023 funding round valued AI21 at $1.4 billion. However, Nvidia and Alphabet’s Google participated in that funding.
Amnon Shashua and two others launched AI21 in 2017 to be among a number of AI startups that have been able to ride a boom in artificial intelligence and have gained the attention of venture capital firms and other investors.
Therefore, Shashua is the founder and the CEO of Mobileye, the developer of the self-driving vehicle technology. Calcalist reported AI21 is already on sale, and negotiations with Nvidia are now much farther along than they used to be in the past few weeks.
It reported that the most significant attraction of Nvidia to AI21 seems to be the staff of about 200 workers, the majority of whom have advanced academic degrees and “possess rare expertise in artificial intelligence development.”
The Calcalist reported that the AI21 deal is expected to cost between $2 billion and $3 billion. Nvidia the most valuable company in history, worth more than $4 trillion, is considering a massive expansion in Israel with a new R&D campus of up to 10,000 employees in Kiryat Tivon, in the south of the port city of Haifa, which is Israel’s third-biggest city.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has referred to Israel as the company’s “second home.” NVIDIA has indicated that, upon completion, the campus would contain as much as 160,000 square meters (1.7 million square feet) of office, parks, and shared areas of 90 dunams (22 acres), which was inspired by the NVIDIA headquarters located in Santa Clara, California.
Thus, Nvidia anticipates that it will start its construction in 2027, and initial occupancy is planned for 2031.
