Nvidia acquires Canadian AI efficiency startup CentML

American chip giant Nvidia has acquired Toronto-based machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) startup CentML for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition sends CentML’s co-founders to leadership roles at Nvidia, including CEO Gennady Pekhimenko, COO Akbar Nurlybayev, and CTO Sam Wang. At Nvidia, Pekhimenko is now senior director of AI software, Nurlybayev is senior manager of AI software, and Wang is manager of AI systems software.

CentML looks to help companies figure out what hardware they can use to boost the performance and reduce the cost of their ML models. Pekhimenko has previously described CentML to BetaKit as getting “way more juice out of the available hardware for customers.”

CentML’s federal business registration was discontinued on June 6, 2025, the same day it registered as a business in British Columbia. An email sent to CentML customers has also been shared on social media indicating the startup’s operations are officially ending on July 17, 2025.

The acquisition was first reported by The Logic last week, and since confirmed by Fatima Khamitova, the Vector Institute’s director of startups and scaleups, in a LinkedIn post. The deal sent at least 15 engineers and two interns to Nvidia, but not all staff are making the switch, The Logic reported.

Pekhimenko, also a Vector Institute faculty member, did not respond to requests for comment, and an Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment.

Nvidia first got involved with CentML when it backed a $27 million USD ($37 million CAD) seed round in October 2023. The round was led by Google’s AI-focused Gradient Ventures fund, with participation from big names like Deloitte Ventures, Thomson Reuters Ventures, and Radical Ventures. The funding was committed to double CentML’s 32-person team by the end of 2024.

The CentML acquisition follows Nvidia’s largest competitor, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), also looking to Canada for talent in efficient AI. The chipmaking giant acqui-hired the team behind Toronto-based AI chipmaker Untether AI earlier this month. Untether had been developing AI inference chips that it marketed as faster and more energy-efficient than its rivals, claiming to offer “energy-centric AI inference acceleration from the edge to the cloud.”

The exodus coincides with conversation at Toronto Tech Week’s Homecoming event last week, where leaders from Shopify, Cohere, and Wealthsimple advocated for Canadian entrepreneurs to stay in Canada and resist acquisition offers.

“All of our little bright lights that start—these ambitious Canadians who want to build a company inside of Canada—they get pulled,” Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez said at the event. “You need to start saying no.”

Feature image courtesy CentML.