Israeli artificial intelligence company AI21 Labs, co-founded by Prof. Amnon Shashua, has officially denied talks for its acquisition by Nvidia, following numerous media reports on the matter. "AI21 values Nvidia as a business partner and investor but reports of negotiations for a possible acquisition are incorrect. The company has not held discussions with Nvidia about an acquisition."
The company has issued this statement, even though two weeks ago it declined to officially deny such negotiations and preferred not to respond to the reports. Furthermore, both Shashua and co-CEO Ori Goshen have previously spoken publicly about negotiations with Nvidia, although it was unclear from their statements whether these were negotiations for an acquisition, raising funds or some other type of deal.
Immediately after reports in the Israeli media about a possible sale to Nvidia at the end of last month, Goshen wrote in an internal email obtained by Globes that, "Some of you may have seen a news item published this morning about a deal between Nvidia and AI21. It’s important for us to make clear: The item was denied both by us and by Nvidia, although the reporter chose to publish it anyway. "As we have disclosed to you, we are in talks with a number of potential entities, including Nvidia. This is a continuing and discreet process, and it does not indicate a specific deal or any immediate change. The company continues to operate as usual; we are in the final stages of planning the first quarter with the managers of the various units, in the light of our strategic focus. If and when there is something concrete to share with you, you will be the first to know, with full transparency and in an orderly manner."
Why did the denial come now?
AI21, for its part, would have continued to maintain official silence, were it not for an interview that Prof. Shashua recently gave "Bloomberg" as part of the company's public relations campaign during its announcements at the CES electronics conference. On Wednesday, Shashua was interviewed by "Bloomberg" and confirmed that "AI21 has had talks with Nvidia and other companies, but there is no deal that is close to maturity. There are talks with Nvidia and others, but nothing is close enough to talk about it in the media."
Only after Shashua's words did AI21, a company he himself founded, publish a denial and clarified that it had never discussed or agreed with Nvidia about an acquisition. It makes sense to dwell on the company's wording, which focuses on the term "acquisition" - and this is due to the fact that in the past year, technology giants have not been acquiring companies, but are turning to an alternative structure of hiring all or some of the employees at the same time as signing an agreement to use their product, as Nvidia acquired Grok, and Google acquired Character.
In addition, it is known that AI21 Labs and Nvidia discussed and agreed on a $300 million capital investment round together with Google, but the funding was not completed. This leaves AI21 as a relatively lean company that has raised no more than $336 million since its inception. There is no doubt that the company is up for sale, as revealed by "Globes," and considering that the CEO emphasized that no negotiations for a sale by Nvidia took place, this does not mean that there are no negotiations with another company. With about 200 employees, revenue of a few tens of millions of dollars, and with a relatively low total fundraising behind it, AI21 will be able to receive offers that will return the investment in it and perhaps even yield something of a return.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on January 12, 2026.
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