Annapurna Labs Founders and AWS Acquisition | Generated by AI
Founders of Annapurna Labs
Annapurna Labs was founded in 2011 in Israel by three key individuals:
- Hrvoje “Billy” Bilic: Co-founder and former CEO, a Bosnian Jewish refugee with expertise in chip design.
- Nafea Bshara: Co-founder, an Arab Israeli citizen who later became Vice President and Distinguished Engineer at AWS after the acquisition.
- Ronen Boneh: Co-founder, contributing to the early technical and operational setup.
The company received early investments from notable figures and firms, including Avigdor Willenz (who also served on the board), Manuel Alba, Andy Bechtolsheim, Walden International, Arm Holdings, and TSMC. The initial board included Willenz, Alba, and Lip-Bu Tan (CEO of Walden International and executive chairman of Cadence Design Systems).
Acquisition by AWS
In January 2015, Amazon acquired Annapurna Labs for approximately $350–370 million to bolster its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division. The lab became a wholly owned subsidiary, focusing on custom silicon for cloud computing, such as the Graviton processors. Post-acquisition, it integrated deeply into AWS’s hardware innovation efforts.
Key People Post-Acquisition
- Nafea Bshara: Continues as a prominent leader at AWS, driving chip development.
- Hrvoje Bilic: Remained influential in AWS’s silicon strategy, often highlighted in industry talks.
- The team has grown under AWS, with contributions to AI and machine learning chips, but specific current executives beyond the founders are not publicly detailed in leadership rosters.
This acquisition is credited with giving AWS a significant edge in custom hardware, transforming cloud economics.
References
- Annapurna Labs - Wikipedia
- How silicon innovation became the ‘secret sauce’ behind AWS’s success
- The Stealthy Lab Cooking Up Amazon’s Secret Sauce
- Climbing Annapurna to the Clouds - Cadence Blogs