AI computer maker Cerebras nabs TotalEnergies SE as first energy sector customer

Tiernan Ray

Cerebras Systems, the San Jose, California-based startup that makes computers dedicated to processing deep learning algorithms and other large-scale scientific computing tasks, Wednesday morning announced it has sold its first "CS-2" computer to TotalEnergies, the 98-year-old, Paris-based energy exploration and production company.

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It is the first win for the young AI startup in the energy sector. 

"The energy sector has historically been a monster consumer of compute, and they've generally been quiet about it," said Cerebras co-founder and CEO Andrew Feldman in an interview with ZDNet. "The energy market is four times the size of the market that Google and all the rest play in -- it's unbelievably big," he said, referring to the online advertising and shopping market.

"Our engineers are quite excited," said Dr. Vincent Saubestre, who is CEO of TotalEnergies Research and Technologies, "because the Cerebras machines are designed for machine learning, and informing the models to design new molecules, to design new materials, to simulate things that would take much longer" using other computers. Based in Houston, Texas, the research facility is where the CS-2 system has been in testing. Saubestre was speaking in the same interview with ZDNet as Feldman.

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