AI cloud computing giant CoreWeave has acquired Weights & Biases, which offers an AI developer platform for deep learning, the companies announced on Tuesday.
The deal, which The Information reported is for about $1.7 billion, comes as CoreWeave is gearing up to go public on the Nasdaq.
The acquisition is a big score for Weights & Biases’ early investors: Bloomberg Beta, Trinity Ventures and Coatue Management all backed the startup at valuations under $100 million.
AI investor Nat Friedman, who had put angel money into Weights & Biases at its seed round at a valuation under $10 million, doubled down with his fund partner Daniel Gross in the most recent round, with a $50 million check at a $1.25 billion valuation in August of 2023.
In today’s sloth-like IPO market, any acquisition is a welcome development for limited partners with liquidity tied up in private companies. Weights & Biases’ 36% markup from its last round’s valuation also signals the strong appetite by larger AI players to use acquisitions to expand their stack. Nvidia has been a particularly active buyer, adding both Run:AI and OctoAI to its portfolio in the last six months.
Founded in 2017 as a platform for AI application developer tools, Weights & Biases’ customer base includes Nvidia, Canva and OpenAI.
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