A Paris startup wants to loosen Nvidia’s grip on AI, not with a new chip, but with software. ZML has released a free tool that runs open-source models fast across Nvidia, AMD, Google, Apple and Intel silicon alike.
Nvidia still rules AI hardware, but its walls keep thinning. ZML, a Paris startup backed by AI pioneer Yann LeCun, has released free software that runs open-source language models across a mix of chips, TechCrunch reports. The list spans five targets: Nvidia, AMD, Google’s TPUs, Intel and Apple.
The tool, ZML/LLMD, is an inference server. Inference means running a trained model to answer prompts, the part of AI that now eats most of the compute. Founder Steeve Morin says the goal is to break the silos that lock users to one vendor, and to squeeze each chip to its top speed.
Why a mix of chips matters
Cost is the driver. As AI bills climb, enterprises and clouds want the freedom to pick cheaper or less power-hungry silicon for a given job. “The idea is to give people back the power to create their own system,” Morin said. Do that well, and it reads less like a feature and more like a wedge under Nvidia’s moat.
