Silo AI

Silo AI, established in Helsinki, Finland in 2017, operates as a private artificial intelligence lab. The company was founded by a team of six tech veterans: Peter Sarlin, Tero Ojanperä, Johan Kronberg, Juha Hulkko, Kaj-Mikael Björk, and Ville Hulkko. The founders brought a diverse mix of experience to the venture. Sarlin has a background as a professor specializing in machine learning and has worked with institutions like the European Central Bank. Ojanperä previously served as CTO and Chief Strategy Officer at Nokia, while Kronberg was the CEO and Chairman of PwC Finland. This blend of academic AI expertise and corporate leadership shaped the company's direction.

The firm's business model centers on providing custom AI-powered solutions and strategic partnerships. Silo AI works with large enterprise clients, such as Rolls-Royce, Philips, and Unilever, to integrate AI into their products and operations. This is achieved through joint teams where Silo AI's scientists collaborate with the client's domain experts. The company's service offerings span computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning operations (MLOps). Revenue is generated by building these AI-driven solutions and products for industries that include autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and industry 4.0. In 2022, the company reported revenues of €14.3m.

A core part of Silo AI's portfolio is the development of its own AI platforms and models. The company launched SiloGen, a generative AI product arm, and developed open-source large language models (LLMs) like Poro and Viking, which are focused on European languages. These models were notably trained on AMD hardware, specifically on the LUMI supercomputer, showcasing the capability of training large-scale models on AMD's platforms. In July 2024, the semiconductor company AMD announced its acquisition of Silo AI for approximately $665 million in an all-cash deal, which was completed in August 2024. This acquisition was Europe's largest in the AI sector to date and positioned Silo AI as AMD's global AI center of excellence, tasked with accelerating the development and deployment of AI solutions optimized for AMD's compute platforms. Post-acquisition, the team joined AMD's Artificial Intelligence Group, with CEO Peter Sarlin continuing to lead the unit.

Keywords: AI lab, custom AI solutions, large language models, enterprise AI, machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, AMD acquisition, SiloGen, Poro LLM, Viking LLM, strategic AI partnership, AI integration, AI-driven products, European AI, generative AI, MLOps, AI-powered software, data annotation, autonomous vehicles AI, smart industry