Lightning AI, which provides tools for developing artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, is getting into the business of packaging those models into ready-made enterprise applications with the launch of Lightning AI Hub.
It’s a marketplace where developers and other users can find prebuilt AI applications that are ready to be deployed at the click of a button via no-code application programming interfaces. In addition, developers can list the AI models that power those applications separately within the marketplace.
The startup, officially known as Grid.ai Inc., said today it’s trying to solve the “last mile” problem of generative AI deployment, referring to the difficulty that many companies face in putting AI to use in a productive way.
The AI Hub is similar to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, in that enterprises can browse for applications that are ready to go, without any tinkering required. The launch is a response to the likes of Amazon Web Services Inc. and Hugging Face Inc., which have both recently launched similar marketplaces for prebuilt AI applications.
By giving enterprises access to ready-made applications, Lightning AI eliminates multiple hassles, such as the need to set up the infrastructure required to run and host AI models, and the coding required to integrate them into useful applications.
Lightning AI is best known for its AI development platform, which provides developers with cloud workspaces and tools for creating generative AI and machine learning models and applications. It also provides tools that make it easier to use the open-source PyTorch Lightning AI development framework that was created by Lightning AI Chief Executive William Falcon. It gives developers a choice of full-, low- or no-code environments to work with, where they can train and deploy AI models and build intelligent AI agents, among other things.
With Lightning AI Hub, the company says it’s helping enterprises that have struggled to get AI into production move beyond the prototyping phase. At launch, it lists more than 50 APIs, with a combination of prebuilt applications and AI models, including DeepSeek Ltd.’s popular, low-cost DeepSeek-R1 model.
The company said many of the ready-made applications listed on the Hub were built using its flagship development platform Lightning AI Studio, while others come from third-party developers. Those apps can be deployed on Lightning’s own cloud platform or public and private enterprise cloud environments. Additionally, customers can link them to their own AWS and Google Cloud instances, to ensure their data remains secure.
The marketplace is ostensibly free for existing Lightning AI customers, though they’re limited to 15 monthly credits for running those applications. For those who want more credits, and those who need to connect their own cloud environments, it plans to make a number of pricing tiers available.
Driving AI forward
Falcon told VentureBeat in an interview that the main advantage of using the AI Hub is that it speeds up AI deployment, as it provides everything that’s needed to get started on one platform.
“We have a big Fortune 100 pharma company customer,” he said. “Within a few days of when DeepSeek came out, they had it in production, already running.”
The launch of the AI Hub indicates a shift in the way enterprises are deploying and consuming AI technologies, with API-based marketplaces coming to the fore.
For example, AWS’ Amazon BedRock service offers a marketplace where customers can find and deploy specialized foundation models, along with Buy with AWS, which offers AI services and apps from third parties.
Another rival is Hugging Face, which last year launched the Spaces marketplace that now lists thousands of AI applications. This week, Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue revealed that his company has evolved to become the “biggest AI app store” in the world.
Hugging Face has quietly become the biggest AI app store with 400,000 total apps, 2,000 new apps created every day, getting visited 2.5M times every week!
Now you can search through any of them with AI or categories.
The future of AI will be distributed, have fun everyone! pic.twitter.com/34FbvzceKL
— clem 🤗 (@ClementDelangue) February 4, 2025
That may be so, but Falcon told VentureBeat that Lightning Hub is different because it not only provides access to advanced applications, but also tools that simplify their deployment, allowing customers to focus more on security.
“AI Hub provides complete AI systems,” Falcon said, adding that its rivals’ marketplaces only list AI models. “It’s the difference between selling an engine versus delivering a fully built car. Our approach ensures enterprises can actually drive AI adoption forward, not just experiment with it.”
Main image: News/Meta AI
Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.
One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.
Join our community on YouTube
Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.
THANK YOU
