Nebius Acquires Israeli Startup Inferize in Deal Valued Up to $150 Million
NASDAQ-listed cloud firm Nebius has acquired Israeli startup Inferize for up to $150 million. Inferize specializes in AI inference optimization, tackling the cold start problem to maximize GPU efficiency.
Nebius, the NASDAQ-listed AI cloud company, has acquired Inferize, an Israeli startup established in early 2026, for an estimated $100 million to $150 million, including employee retention packages. Founded by CEO Guy Bortnikov and CTO Lior Gorbounov—both alumni of Granulate’s founding team—Inferize secured a seed round led by TLV Partners alongside prominent angel investors. The company employs 17 people at its offices in Tel Aviv.
Inferize specializes in optimizing AI model inference, reducing the time required to deploy and scale large models while making workloads elastic. Its technology and team are joining Nebius Token Factory, the company’s managed inference platform. The startup’s solution addresses the "cold start" problem—the delay and cost associated with loading models before responding to requests, which leaves GPUs idle during ramp-ups, demand surges, or weight updates. By mitigating this "GPU tax," Nebius aims to optimize infrastructure utilization and reduce operational costs.
Strategic Expansion in Israel
This acquisition builds on previous moves by Nebius to enhance its platform, following integrations with teams and technologies from Eigen AI and Clarifai. Inferize’s engineering team will operate within Nebius to maximize output from every GPU across its client network. Shahar Tzafrir, Managing Partner at TLV Partners, noted that achieving such an exit just eight months after inception underscores the exceptional caliber of the founding team.
To achieve such an exit just eight months after company inception is an extraordinary achievement that highlights the exceptional strength and quality of the founders and the stellar team they recruited.
In the broader Israeli tech ecosystem, Nebius has engaged in several notable transactions, including the acquisition of Tavily for an initial $275 million, with earn-outs potentially lifting the deal to $400 million. Tavily developed a dynamic real-time search and information layer tailored for AI agents, enabling developers to run advanced autonomous agents directly within the Nebius cloud ecosystem. Additionally, Nebius is establishing an advanced AI Data Center in Modiin, deploying cutting-edge NVIDIA Blackwell architecture featuring thousands of HGX B200 GPUs.
