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OpenAI makes its second acquisition, acquiring data analytics company Rockset

Posted on by darion

OpenAI just made its second acquisition in the form of Rockset, an enterprise search and analytics startup. This acquisition is the largest in OpenAI’s history to date.

In a blog post, OpenAI revealed plans to integrate Rockset’s cutting-edge technology into its platform to enable business customers and developers to use data more efficiently. The integration is expected to enhance OpenAI’s existing infrastructure by providing real-time data mining and analysis capabilities that are critical for a variety of applications. Rockset team members will join OpenAI, bringing their expertise to help ensure a smooth transition and ensure successful rollout of Rockset technology. For now, the financial details of the takeover remain secret.

“I am thrilled to announce that OpenAI has completed its acquisition of Rockset. We are excited to join the OpenAI team and contribute our technology and expertise to building safe and beneficial AGI,” announced Venkat Venkataramani, CEO of Rockset, in a blog post. “Rockset will become part of OpenAI and power the search infrastructure supporting the OpenAI product suite. We will help OpenAI solve the difficult database problems that AI applications face on a massive scale. Existing Rockset customers will not experience any immediate changes. We will gradually migrate existing customers away from Rockset and will do our best to ensure a smooth process,” he added.

The acquisition comes amid intense competition in the artificial intelligence industry, where OpenAI competes with rivals such as Anthropic’s Google and Alphabet Inc. These companies are racing to develop the most advanced artificial intelligence models and offer attractive services that meet the needs of business customers. This has benefited companies such as OpenAI, whose valuation rose to $86 billion in a recent call. Moreover, the integration of Rockset technology is expected to significantly increase OpenAI’s annual revenue, which is expected to exceed $3.4 billion this year.

As for Rockset, it was founded in 2016 by former Facebook engineers Venkat Venkataramani, Tudor Bosman, and database architect Dhrub Borthakur and has since established itself as a powerhouse player in the data analytics space. The company specializes in technology that retrieves, indexes and searches data for business clients in various sectors such as gaming and fintech. In August, Rockset raised $44 million in financing led by Icon Ventures with participation from top investors such as Sequoia and Greylock, bringing total capital to $105 million.

This acquisition is likely to be fruitful for both companies. OpenAI is at the forefront of creating powerful artificial intelligence models, but these models require vast amounts of high-quality data to function effectively. Rockset, on the other hand, has expertise in real-time data processing and vector search, which makes it easier to efficiently search for similar data points. This technology is crucial for AI applications such as recommendation engines, voice assistants and chatbots. “Rockset infrastructure enables companies to transform data into actionable information. We are excited to deliver these benefits to our customers by integrating Rockset’s foundations with OpenAI products,” said Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s chief operating officer.