The startup’s real-time AI optimization software may drive down computing costs.
In a press release in late March, Intel announced an agreement to acquire Israeli startup Granulate, which develops real-time continuous optimization software. TechCrunch reports the value of the transaction at $650 million, though Intel did not disclose financial details in its press release.
The deal is slated to close in Q2 2022, when Intel will integrate Granulate’s 120 employees into its Datacenter and AI business unit.
Why Buy Granulate?
The rise of cloud computing has granted more flexibility in the use of distributed applications and deployment scalability. However, modern architectures have spurred more complicated performance issues for traditional operating systems. Most companies don’t have the resources to troubleshoot these issues.
According to Granulate, the company’s AI system can learn data flow and resource usage associated with businesses’ cloud and on-premises applications. Its primary service is to provide optimization for cloud and data center customers to help them maximize compute workload performance and reduce infrastructure and cloud costs.
Many businesses deploy older Linux distribution and application libraries that are no longer in lockstep with current high-performance CPUs. By acquiring Granulate, Intel hopes to help its clients rightsize their compute clusters, instance types and cloud deployments.
“We are building our portfolio of software optimization tools that offer flexible and scalable capabilities that allow us to meet the growing demand of the ubiquitous compute era,” said Intel’s Greg Lavender in the press release. “Granulate’s innovative approach to real-time optimization software complements Intel’s existing capabilities by helping customers realize performance gains, cloud cost reductions and continual workload learning.”
Granulate was well-known to Intel, as the company was a member of the startup accelerator Intel Ignite’s first graduating class.
Once the acquisition is complete, Intel will be able to put Granulate’s autonomous optimization service to use for its clients. According to the Granulate, the service learns details about a client’s application use and deploys continuous optimizations in real time to improve application performance and drive down cloud and data center usage costs. Granulate claims that its software can improve response times by up to 40 percent and throughput by up to five times while reducing costs by up to 60 percent.
This acquisition is the latest in an Intel spending spree. In February, the company launched a $1 billion fund to promote chip foundry innovation and bought Tower Semiconductor, another Israeli company, for $5.4 billion.
