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Nvidia-Backed Cloud Firm CoreWeave to Acquire AI Platform Weights & Biases

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CoreWeave, a cloud infrastructure provider backed by Nvidia, announced on Tuesday its acquisition of the AI developer platform Weights & Biases. The move is part of CoreWeave’s strategy to expand its cloud offerings ahead of its upcoming IPO.

The acquisition will integrate CoreWeave’s infrastructure and managed cloud services with Weights & Biases’ AI platform, which is widely used for training, evaluating, and monitoring AI models. Prominent technology companies such as OpenAI and Meta utilize Weights & Biases’ platform to build and deploy AI applications.

While the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, sources familiar with the transaction told The Information that the acquisition could be valued at approximately $1.7 billion.

CoreWeave, based in Roseland, New Jersey, has seen significant growth, reporting an eight-fold increase in revenue for 2024. The company is also advancing with its plans to list publicly later this year, with expectations to achieve a valuation exceeding $35 billion in its New York flotation.

CoreWeave’s customer base includes major players like hedge fund Jane Street, as well as tech giants Meta, IBM, and Microsoft.

Baidu Set to Launch Next-Gen AI Model “Ernie 5” in 2025

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Baidu, China’s leading tech company, is poised to unveil the next iteration of its AI model, Ernie 5, in the second half of 2025, according to a source familiar with the matter. The new model will introduce multimodal capabilities, enabling it to handle and convert various formats, including text, video, images, and audio.

This launch comes at a time of fierce competition in China’s AI sector, especially from the startup DeepSeek, which has gained attention for offering a reasoning model that competes with OpenAI’s GPT at a lower cost. Despite being an early adopter in AI with its Ernie model, Baidu has faced challenges in achieving widespread adoption, even though it claims that Ernie 4 rivals the capabilities of GPT-4.

Baidu’s AI models have lagged behind domestic competitors, including ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot and DeepSeek, in terms of user uptake. Baidu CEO Robin Li acknowledged at a recent Dubai conference that the rise of DeepSeek highlights the unpredictable nature of innovation. He also noted that investment in data centers and cloud infrastructure remains essential, even though DeepSeek has shown that AI models can be made more cost-efficient.

Baidu CEO Stresses Continued Investment in Cloud Infrastructure Despite DeepSeek’s Success

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Baidu CEO Robin Li emphasized the ongoing need for investment in cloud infrastructure and data centers despite the recent success of DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup. Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Tuesday, Li highlighted that while DeepSeek has demonstrated impressive efficiency in developing language models using less computing power, the demand for greater computational resources remains crucial.

“The investment in cloud infrastructure is still very much required. To develop models smarter than others, you need more compute,” Li stated, referring to the hardware that enables AI models to train, process data, and generate predictions.

DeepSeek has captured global attention for creating language models that rival leading systems like OpenAI’s GPT while utilizing significantly lower computational resources. This innovation has raised questions about the necessity for massive infrastructure investments, which has been a focal point of many AI companies’ strategies.

Baidu, one of the first Chinese companies to introduce AI products after the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in late 2022, has developed its large language model, Ernie, which the company claims matches the capabilities of GPT-4. However, Ernie has seen limited adoption in the market.

Li, known for making bold statements about China’s AI industry, acknowledged the unexpected nature of innovation, citing DeepSeek’s rapid success as an example. “You just don’t know when and where innovations come from,” Li remarked.

The CEO also noted that the pressure to reduce costs and overcome compute constraints has driven Chinese companies like Baidu to innovate more efficiently. In an apparent shift from his earlier stance, Li recognized the potential of open-source approaches to accelerate AI development. “If you open things up, many people will be curious enough to try it. This will help spread the technology much faster,” he added.