Recently, a new startup called ElastixAI was established in Seattle, USA. The company was founded by several experienced engineers with the aim of addressing the cost and complexity issues in the deployment process of large language models. ElastixAI focuses on developing an AI inference platform designed to optimize the operation of large language models. Within just a few months of its founding, the company successfully raised $16 million in funding, led by the venture capital firm FUSE based in Bellevue.
The CEO of ElastixAI is Mohammad Rastegari, who was also a co-founder and CTO of Xnor, a Seattle-based startup focusing on edge computing AI tools. In 2020, Xnor was acquired by Apple for approximately $200 million. Another founder, Saman Naderiparizi, serves as the CTO. He was responsible for hardware engineering at Xnor and previously worked as a senior engineering manager at Apple. Additionally, the third member of the founding team, Mahyar Najibi, also worked at Apple and spent three years at Waymo.
With the growing demand for artificial intelligence, inference technology – how trained language models "think" and generate answers – has become one of the hottest areas in AI infrastructure. ElastixAI aims to enhance the performance and efficiency of these models, making them adaptable to various hardware configurations whether deployed at the edge or on a large scale in the cloud.
In an interview with GeekWire, Rastegari stated: "We see a gap in delivering AI inference at low cost and at scale." He further explained that ElastixAI's technology platform is primarily software-driven. Although ElastixAI is still in stealth mode, the founding team said their platform can serve enterprises ranging from hyperscale cloud computing companies to those integrating AI into daily operations.
ElastixAI's uniqueness lies in providing flexibility. As Naderiparizi said: "We want to enable customers to configure their systems in very detailed ways, thereby building inference infrastructure tailored to their specific use cases." Currently, there are several companies already developing related products for inference, including major corporations like Nvidia and Coreweave, as well as some startups such as Fireworks.ai and Together.ai.
In addition, ElastixAI’s investors include Catapult, Tyche, Liquid2Ventures, and DNX Ventures, among others. Cameron Borumand, a partner at FUSE, said in an interview: "We are excited to support Elastix's technical team in addressing the challenge of scaling computation and infrastructure in the rapidly growing AI inference market."
Key Takeaways:
🔍 ElastixAI is a newly established Seattle-based startup focused on developing AI inference technology.
💰 The company successfully raised $16 million in funding, supported by investment institutions such as FUSE.
📈 ElastixAI aims to improve the performance and efficiency of large language models and serve clients with various hardware configurations.