Nvidia to buy AI orchestration software provider Run:ai

Run:ai’s orchestration technology is important for modern AI users, according to Peter Rutten, a research vice president at IDC, but its close relationship with Nvidia means that the deal doesn’t appreciably change the nature of Nvidia’s offerings to the AI market.

“Run:ai is a great solution for managing and orchestrating GPU workloads,” he said. “But I would say this is an incremental improvement, not a transformative one.”

For one thing, Rutten said, Nvidia already has a container environment, as well as an AI Enterprise suite designed to help manage AI workloads. Run:ai is better at that, allowing for “much more control” over a given pool of computing resources, but it’s “not anything game-changing,” he said.

The move does help Nvidia accomplish its apparent longer-term AI strategy, however, according to Sathish. The idea is to bring the AI vendor ecosystem closer to Nvidia, with the end goal of creating a more complete software stack that it can offer to the market.

“Run:ai’s platform is a good add-on and also an essential for companies that are in the business of scaling AI or running data science at scale,” Sathish said. “There is always a need for faster model iteration and deployment for better business value.”

Gartner distinguished VP analyst Arun Chandrasekaran said that the acquisition is well-suited to preparing Nvidia’s AI offerings for the changing AI marketplace.