Storj Acquires Leading AI Compute Provider, Valdi

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Jul 09, 2024, 09:57 ET

Storj, the leader in distributed cloud object storage, expands cloud platform capabilities with Valdi's high performance compute platform

LOS ANGELES, July 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Storj today announces a new era in distributed cloud innovation with the acquisition of Valdi. Storj is the leader in distributed cloud object storage, disrupting the $100 billion cloud storage market, delivering up to 90% cost savings and 90% less carbon emissions for customers. Valdi is the leader in on-demand high performance cloud computing (GPUs) widely used for AI training and inference in data-intensive industries like technology, research and life-sciences. Valdi is addressing the massive shortage of GPUs driven by growth of the AI market by making them available instantly in mass scale at very competitive prices. Storj is seizing the opportunity to accelerate innovation at-scale with integrated cloud storage and GPU solutions, which is a big step toward developing a full stack distributed cloud solution.

Today, Storj acquired Valdi, the leader in on-demand GPU computing. This is a significant milestone in Storj's mission to redefine cloud computing, which gives Storj access to thousands of GPUs and positions Storj as the largest distributed cloud provider, the leading decentralized physical infrastructure provider, and the only distributed cloud provider to offer both enterprise grade storage and enterprise grade compute.

The synergy between Valdi and Storj is undeniable. Both companies have been pioneers in leveraging underutilized resources to deliver scalable, cost-effective solutions. Together, we offer a solution that addresses the complex needs of companies innovating with AI, from AI training and inference to large-scale data storage and management.

Just as Storj disrupted the storage industry by enabling customers to use underutilized storage capacity in data centers in 100+ countries worldwide, Valdi is disrupting the GPU industry, enabling customers to use available GPU compute cycles in data centers worldwide. The combination is ideal because most AI workloads require significant GPU compute, storage and movement of large data sets.

Storj Chief Revenue Officer Colby Winegar says, "Today's enterprises demand new high-performance cloud solutions to innovate affordably and sustainably. Valdi's global network of data centers with high performance cloud compute is a natural extension of Storj's distributed cloud and particularly exciting as our joint storage and GPU offering is optimized for Generative AI workloads." Incremental AI spend is expected to hit $1 trillion over the next decade with over 70% of enterprises ultimately pursuing AI use cases.

In the rapidly evolving field of generative AI, the capacity to scale efficiently throughout different stages of model development and deployment is critical. Valdi's global compute infrastructure enables developers and enterprises to build and commercialize their own generative AI applications easily, scalably, and economically.

Valdi's high-performance GPUs and Storj's S3 compatible distributed cloud object storage are infinitely and rapidly scalable, and available almost anywhere in the world. With elastic capacity, Storj eliminates supply chain, manufacturing and resource-intensive maintenance challenges, while delivering speed, scalability, security, reliability and sustainability by design. Valdi also operates via a distributed architecture, allowing organizations to innovate fast and affordably in AI/ML.

Valdi CEO Nikhil Jain said, "Validi's global cloud compute platform enables it to surpass traditional approaches to GPU provisioning, especially when facing unprecedented demand. Our customers also have substantial storage needs for their AI workloads, so uniting our organizations delivers benefits to customers while empowering us to grow faster."

Institutions including CalTech and USC/ISI utilize Valdi's cloud compute platform for their AI workloads. Storj and Valdi prove to the enterprise that the highest standards of performance can be delivered and scaled at a fraction of the financial and carbon expenses of traditional approaches, thanks to distributed architectures.

Valdi makes it easy to spin-up powerful GPU clusters in flexible configurations in only a few seconds with no contracts and at very reasonable pricing. The Valdi network features over 16,000 GPUs globally.

Ben Golub, Storj CEO, said, "Storj was created to build a new cloud for a new era of computing. About 20 years ago AWS began with S3 object storage followed by EC2 CPU-based computing and other services. Today, Storj builds on our strong foundation of distributed cloud object storage. Acquiring Valdi expands the value of our distributed solutions for the enterprise by enabling a full stack cloud offering for our wide range of global customers."

Valdi and Storj also share a passion for digital sustainability and responsible innovation. They co-founded the non-profit Digital Sustainability Alliance (DSA) together with Ad Signal, to advocate for technology that advances environmental stewardship.

About Storj
Storj is redefining the cloud to advance the future of data—sustainably and economically. Storj leverages the vast global supply of underutilized resources to deliver services with better security, durability and performance. Experience up to 90% lower costs and carbon reduction with Storj.

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Press Contact:
Jackie Lucas
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SOURCE Storj