Cerebras Systems has announced the signing of an approximately $100 million deal with United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based technology conglomerate G42. The agreement included providing an initial installment of an artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer, with the potential to deliver nine more units, the company said in a statement on July 20.
Cerebras, which is headquartered in Silicon Valley, said G42 has committed to acquire three of its Condor Galaxy Systems, an innovative network consisting of nine interconnected supercomputers. The first supercomputer of this network, known as Condor Galaxy 1 (CG-1), demonstrated a performance of 4 exaFLOPS and contained 54 million cores.
These systems will be manufactured in the United States to accelerate their deployment. The company said the first system is scheduled to become operational this year, while the remaining two, CG-2 and CG-3, are expected to be online in early 2024.
The agreement comes amid a global search among cloud computing providers to find alternatives to chips from Nvidia Corp, the current market leader in AI computing. Nvidia’s products are facing shortages due to increased demand for services such as ChatGPT and others. In this context, Cerebra, along with several other startups, is attempting to challenge Nvidia’s dominance in the AI computing field.
According to Cerebras CEO, Andrew Feldman, discussions are underway for a possible acquisition of six more supercomputers by the end of 2024. With the G42, they aim to expand on this supercomputer, with plans to install 36 exaflops of AI computing in the coming year.
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In the announcement, Feldman expressed his intention to relocate to the United Arab Emirates for three months, collaborating closely with G42 to advance his computing service using the system. He described the effort as a “rare opportunity to revolutionize a huge market”. Abu Dhabi-headquartered G42 said it plans to leverage Cerebras Systems to provide AI computing services to healthcare and energy companies.
Cointelegraph reached out to Cerebras for more details on the terms of the deal and plans for a partnership in expanding the Condor Galaxy network and furthering AI projects, but has not yet received a response.
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