On June 26, 2023, Databricks declared that they are acquiring Generative AI (artificial intelligence) startup MosaicML for $1.3 billion. The deal comes at a time when artificial intelligence is dominating the tech industry. Many big tech players like Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O), Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O), and venture capital investors are investing billions into funding AI startups.
Ali Ghodsi, Co-founder and CEO of Databricks, said, “Every organization should be able to benefit from the AI revolution with more control over how their data is used.” According to a press release, the Databricks Lakehouse Platform and MosaicML’s technology will give organizations a simple, fast way to build, own, and secure models.
Introduction to Databricks and MosaicML
MosaicML, a generative AI platform, empowers enterprises by helping them build their own artificial intelligence. The platform lets developers have complete control over the AI models with data privacy and model ownership built into the design. The generative AI platform’s large language models, like MPT-7B and MPT-30B, have over 3.3 million downloads.
Databricks, one of the leading Data and AI companies in the industry, reported a revenue of more than $1 billion in 2022. Over 50% of the Fortune companies rely on Databricks Lakehouse Platform to unify their data, AI, and analytics. The company sells software tools to build AI systems using open-source models.
MosaicML reportedly said that the automatic optimization of model training could provide 2-7 times faster training compared to standard approaches. According to the press release by Databricks, the multi-billion-parameter models and near-linear resource scaling can be trained in hours rather than days.
Hence, the integration of Databricks and MosaicML will lower the cost of training and using LLMs from millions to thousands of dollars. Once the transition closes, the entire MosaicML team is expected to join Databricks.
In short, it is the beginning of the revolution, and the businesses that adopt the leading can stand ahead of the competition. If you are looking to build AI models for your business, it’s important to contact experts like Inferenz. The team of skilled AI will analyse your specific requirements and ensure seamless cloud data migration if required.
We’re over the moon to announce we’ve agreed to acquire @MosaicML, a leading generative AI platform. Together, we’ll make generative AI accessible for every organization, so you can build, own & secure models with your data. https://t.co/Y8Lb6DS85l
— Databricks (@databricks) June 26, 2023
The Goal of MosaicML Acquisition by Databricks
The primary aim of MosaicML is to offer more targeted and less expensive generative AI implementations. The Wall Street Journal, in an article, quotes Larry Pickett, who is the chief information and digital officer of biopharmaceutical services company Syneos Health.
Pickett said the current cost to train a model on specialized health data is estimated to be $1-2 million. He also suggests that “domain-specific” models may offer more value to companies than ChatGPT, all thanks to their industry-specific terminology and expertise.
However, he believes that Syneos Health can save costs by utilizing smaller, trained models instead of relying on the entire OpenAI dataset. It would be interesting to see if the integration can help enterprises lower costs, build AI models faster, and improve efficiency.
Consequences of Databricks and MosaicML Deal
Modern enterprises are constantly struggling to find ways to build generative AI models. However, the main challenge they encounter while building generative AI apps is feeding their data into systems.
MosaicML resolves this problem by providing companies with a unified platform that streamlines feeding data into systems. Companies can build, train, or deploy their state-of-the-art models using their proprietary data.
Besides, the MosaicML also provides a commercially usable, open-source MPPT series of models. This helps companies to fine-tune their data to deploy their private large language models in a quick and easy manner.
In this way, MosaicML enables developers to have complete control over their model. Now that Databricks has officially announced the deal with MosaicML, all these offerings will fall under Databricks’ umbrella.
Soon the AI research department of MosaicML will join the Databricks team. Similarly, all the platform’s training and inference tools will be integrated into Lakehouse, creating a unified offering.
Databricks’ Competitors Entering the Generative AI
Snowflake, one of the main competitors of Databricks, has recently built its own generative AI push by acquiring Neeva. In May 2023, Snowflake announced that they are acquiring Neeva — a search company that leverages generative AI and other innovations to help users query and discover data in new ways.
Benoit Dageville, the co-founder at Snowflake, said, “We plan to infuse and leverage these innovations across the Data Cloud to benefit our customers, developers, and partners. Acquiring Neeva will help us to tap into the most cutting-edge search technologies available to bring search and conversation in Snowflake to a new level.”
With the advancements in AI, engaging with data through natural language has become more popular than ever. Neeva’s acquisition will enable users and developers to quickly build search-enabled and conversational experiences. In addition, Neeva will fit into Snowflake’s strategy to help companies benefit from the power of Generative AI and LLMs.
Looking to understand the critical differences between Snowflake and Databricks? Check out our comprehensive Snowflake vs. Databricks comparison article.
Future of Generative AI in the Tech World
Generative AI is revolutionizing the tech world in more ways than one can imagine. The main aim of advanced technology is to help individuals leverage the power of artificial intelligence without any technical expertise. In addition, it can automate complex tasks and optimize business processes.
If you want to integrate AI solutions into your business, contact Inferenz experts. The skilled team can not only help you develop AI-powered solutions that align with business needs but also ensure you stay at the forefront of the competition. Schedule a call with one of our experts, and let us help you stand ahead with Generative AI apps.
