Nebius (NBIS) Acquires Israeli AI Firm Inferize for Up to $150M to Boost GPU Efficiency

Key Highlights

• AI infrastructure firm Nebius has purchased Israeli startup Inferize in a transaction valued between $100-150 million, with specific financial details remaining undisclosed.
• The acquired company developed specialized technology to eliminate GPU downtime when launching AI models and managing traffic surges.
• At acquisition, Inferize was merely 10 months into operations with a compact team of 17 staff members.
• Co-founders Guy Bortnikov and Lior Gorbonos previously collaborated at Granulate, which Intel purchased in 2022.
• The acquisition follows Nebius’s earlier $275 million purchase of Tavily in 2025.

AI cloud infrastructure provider Nebius has finalized a purchase of Inferize, an emerging Israeli artificial intelligence startup, in a transaction estimated between $100 million and $150 million. The company operates on the Nasdaq exchange under ticker symbol NBIS, with leadership from Arkady Volozh.

Nebius Group N.V., NBIS

Guy Bortnikov and Lior Gorbonos established Inferize in January 2026. The duo previously collaborated at infrastructure optimization firm Granulate, which became part of Intel’s portfolio in 2022.

Operating primarily in stealth mode throughout its brief existence, the company maintained a lean operation with only 17 team members based in Tel Aviv when the acquisition completed.

The startup’s primary innovation tackles a critical infrastructure challenge in artificial intelligence. AI models require their weights to be loaded before processing requests—a phase known as cold start.

During this initialization period, costly GPU resources remain idle as new instances spin up. Similar inefficiencies occur when model weights refresh during operations such as reinforcement learning cycles.

Addressing GPU Utilization Challenges

Organizations operating AI infrastructure at scale encounter a persistent dilemma. Maintaining excess GPU capacity ensures readiness for traffic surges, but results in paying for underutilized computing power.

Alternatively, running lean operations risks inadequate response times when workload demands spike unexpectedly. Inferize’s solution enables capacity to adjust dynamically with actual usage patterns.

This approach improves GPU efficiency metrics while reducing per-request operational costs. The team delivered a functional prototype merely three months after the company’s inception.

“Maintaining idle GPUs represents the cost of preparedness for fluctuating demand,” explained Bortnikov, the company’s CEO. He emphasized that eliminating this inefficiency was Inferize’s fundamental mission.

Nebius has chosen not to reveal precise acquisition terms. Market observers estimate the deal’s value falls within the $100 million to $150 million range.

Strategic Acquisition Strategy

This represents Nebius’s second Israeli acquisition within months. In February, the company committed to purchasing Tavily for $275 million upfront, with potential total compensation reaching $400 million contingent on milestone achievements.

Tavily developed specialized search infrastructure for AI agents that Nebius intends to integrate into its cloud ecosystem. Earlier this year, Nebius also explored acquiring AI21 through preliminary discussions.

The AI21 negotiations ultimately concluded without a transaction. Instead, the organizations established a commercial collaboration, while AI21 subsequently reduced headcount by over 60% to concentrate on its Maestro offering.

Beyond acquisitions, Nebius is strengthening its physical presence in Israel. The firm has secured data center capacity agreements and won a contract to construct a national AI supercomputer.

Infrastructure projects include planned locations in Modi’in, Masmiyya, and Beit Shemesh. Shahar Tzafrir, managing partner at TLV Partners—which participated in Inferize’s seed funding—offered perspective on the transaction.

“Our relationship with the team predated this venture through our Granulate investment,” Tzafrir noted. He described discovering a team with such sophisticated technical capabilities as “extraordinarily uncommon.”

Inferize will be integrated into Nebius Token Factory, the company’s managed inference offering. The acquisition adds to existing technologies already incorporated into that platform, including Eigen AI and select personnel from Clarifai’s engineering organization.

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