CoreWeave, a US$19B artificial intelligence computing provider, has opened its European headquarters in London and plans to build 2 data centers in the UK

CoreWeave doesn’t hang around. The New Jersey startup has reportedly opened an office in London to serve as its European headquarters, following a massive funding round that reportedly valued it at $19 billion.

Separately, Coreweave said it would open two data centers in the UK this year as part of a £1 billion ($1.25 billion) investment, its first outside the United States.

Founded in 2017, CoreWeave is one of a number of AI-focused cloud computing companies that have benefited from the recent surge in AI, including the generative AI hype sparked by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. CoreWeave provides access to cloud-based AI “compute,” the infrastructure and resources needed to perform computing tasks such as processing data and running machine learning models.

Developers building AI applications need access to GPUs (graphics processing units), which are complex to set up and manage and expensive to run because they are typically rented for a period of time. CoreWeave can deliver this processing power at scale and on demand, offering a range of Nvidia GPUs to meet developers’ various use cases.

Many players have emerged in this emerging field, and they have received funding. Lambda raised $320 million a few months ago, and French startup FlexAI raised $30 million last month, but the focus is on deploying AI models across multiple architectures, not just Nvidia.

CoreWeave is one of the leaders in the GPU cloud space. The company said last week it had raised $1.1 billion in a funding round, nearly tripling its valuation from the $7 billion reported in December. Such is the AI ​​gold rush that Nvidia itself has seen its market capitalization quadruple in the past 12 months to over $2 trillion.

Britain and artificial intelligence

The UK is considered one of the countries investing the most in AI R&D, after the US and China. Google’s DeepMind is headquartered in the British capital, and Microsoft recently committed $3.15 billion to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the UK over the next few years. The Redmond-based giant’s new consumer artificial intelligence unit has also established its first international center in London, led by former Inflection and DeepMind scientist Jordan Hoffmann.

The competition for artificial intelligence talent across the UK will only intensify in the coming years. For CoreWeave, its new headquarters will be located near Brick Lane in east London and will recruit around 30 software engineers, a company spokesman said. staff. Support engineering, operations, finance and go-to-market roles.

Just like cloud computing in general, building localized “compute” infrastructure also means companies in the region can achieve lower latency and higher performance applications. Given that CoreWeave plans to open two UK data centers by the end of the year, it’s safe to say that the company was probably already working on those plans before today’s announcement.

This also means that by the end of 2024, CoreWeave will operate 28 data centers globally, although the company did not disclose how many data centers it currently has.It does have 14 by the end of 2023, all in the United States

“We are seeing unprecedented demand for AI infrastructure and London is an important AI hub for us to invest in,” CoreWeave CEO and co-founder Mike Intrator said in a statement. “Expanding our physical footprint in the UK is An important milestone for CoreWeave’s next phase of growth.”