Nvidia has announced plans to enhance its open-source capabilities through the acquisition of SchedMD, a company known for its workload management software, Slurm. This strategic move comes shortly after Nvidia reached a significant milestone, becoming the first company to achieve a market value of $5 trillion. With SchedMD’s expertise, Nvidia aims to foster innovation in the artificial intelligence (AI) space, benefiting researchers, developers, and enterprises globally.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Lehi, Utah, SchedMD also has operations in Poland and Spain. The company specializes in Slurm, which is widely utilized in high-performance computing (HPC) and large data clusters. Nvidia’s acquisition is set to strengthen the open-source software ecosystem, ensuring that Slurm remains a vendor-neutral tool accessible to the broader HPC and AI community.
In an official statement, Nvidia confirmed its commitment to maintaining Slurm as an open-source platform. The company intends to “continue to develop and distribute Slurm as open-source, vendor-neutral software, making it widely available to and supported by the broader HPC and AI community across diverse hardware and software environments.”
Danny Auble, CEO of SchedMD, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, “We’re thrilled to join forces with NVIDIA, as this acquisition is the ultimate validation of Slurm’s critical role in the world’s most demanding HPC and AI environments.” He emphasized that Nvidia’s extensive knowledge and investment in accelerated computing would bolster Slurm’s development, ensuring it meets the evolving demands of AI and supercomputing.
The collaboration between Nvidia and SchedMD spans over a decade, and Nvidia plans to continue investing in Slurm’s development. This move solidifies Slurm’s position as a leading open-source scheduler for HPC and AI applications. Additionally, Nvidia will maintain support, training, and development for Slurm’s clients, which include cloud providers, manufacturers, AI companies, and research institutions across various sectors such as autonomous driving, healthcare, life sciences, energy, financial services, and government.
Nvidia’s acquisition of SchedMD is part of a broader strategy to invest in advanced technology sectors. Over the past year, the company has pledged significant financial resources, including plans to invest £2 billion into the UK’s AI start-up ecosystem, aiming to promote AI technology development, foster new companies, and create jobs.
Moreover, Nvidia has revealed intentions to purchase $5 billion worth of stock from its competitor, Intel. This announcement coincides with a new partnership between the two semiconductor giants, aimed at jointly developing multiple generations of custom data centre and personal computer products.
The combined efforts of Nvidia and SchedMD signal a pivotal moment for the open-source community in HPC and AI, with the potential to drive significant advancements in technology and innovation. As Nvidia continues to expand its investments and partnerships, the impact on the tech landscape is expected to be profound, paving the way for new opportunities and growth.
