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SambaNova vs GMI Cloud
SambaNova sells fast decode from its own dataflow chip. GMI Cloud owns NVIDIA hardware across the US and APAC and serves 100+ text, image, video and audio models. Speed versus multimodal breadth.
By The Subconscious Team · Updated
SambaNova vs GMI Cloud: key differences
Both companies own their hardware, but the hardware differs. GMI Cloud is an NVIDIA Cloud Partner with Tier-4 data centers in Silicon Valley, Colorado, Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia, and its Inference Engine exposes 100+ models, including 50+ video models, through an OpenAI-compatible API. Its cheapest listed LLM, GLM-4.7-Flash, runs $0.07 in and $0.40 out. SambaNova designs its own RDU chip and serves a smaller set of large open LLMs, pitching decode speed and millisecond model hot swapping. GMI's pitch is breadth on owned GPUs; SambaNova's is fewer models served faster.
Residency and modality usually decide this. GMI suits Asia-Pacific companies that need inference kept in-country, and multimodal apps that want LLMs and video generation on one bill, with a path from shared endpoints to reserved H100 or H200 capacity. SambaNova suits interactive coding agents on big text models. Both carry a verification burden: GMI has less third-party benchmarking than US peers, and SambaNova's SN50 claims, like 5x the peak speed of a B200, are its own.
What SambaNova and GMI Cloud do
SambaNova
SambaNova designs its own inference chip, the Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit, and sells fast tokens on large open models through SambaCloud. The RDU maps the model graph onto the chip to cut trips to off-chip memory. A three-tier memory design of SRAM, HBM and bulk DRAM lets one system host very large models and hot swap between several of them in milliseconds. SambaCloud serves models like MiniMax M2.7, DeepSeek, Gemma 4 31B and GPT-OSS 120B, with speeds reported by Artificial Analysis.
Example models: MiniMax M2.7, GPT-OSS 120B
Full SambaNova profileGMI Cloud
GMI Cloud is a vertically integrated GPU cloud and inference platform that owns its NVIDIA hardware. It runs Tier-4 data centers in Silicon Valley, Colorado, Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia, and as an NVIDIA Cloud Partner it gets priority access to H100, H200 and B200 supply. The company pivoted from crypto mining into AI, which gave it experience standing up high-density power and cooling fast. An $82M Series A came from Headline, Wistron and Thai energy group Banpu.
Example models: GLM-4.7-Flash, Google Veo
Full GMI Cloud profileShould you choose SambaNova or GMI Cloud?
SambaNova
Choose SambaNova for
- Fast interactive decode on large open LLMs.
- Agents that switch models in milliseconds.
- Operators wanting air-cooled racks for existing data centers.
GMI Cloud
Choose GMI Cloud for
- APAC data residency in Taiwan, Thailand or Malaysia.
- LLMs plus video, image and audio models on one API.
- Growing from shared endpoints to reserved GPUs.
SambaNova vs GMI Cloud at a glance
| Attribute | SambaNova | GMI Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights | Open and third-party models |
| Flagship models | MiniMax M2.7, GPT-OSS 120B, DeepSeek | GLM-4.7-Flash, Google Veo |
| Speed | ~820 tok/s on MiniMax M2.7 (SN50) | Near bare-metal performance |
| Price | $0.22 in, $0.59 out (GPT-OSS 120B) | $0.07 in, $0.40 out (GLM-4.7-Flash) |
| Customization | Unknown | Unknown |
| Deployment | SambaCloud, racks for neoclouds | Shared, autoscaling, reserved GPUs |
| Long context | Up to 192K (MiniMax M2.7) | Varies by model |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SambaNova and GMI Cloud?
SambaNova sells fast decode from its own dataflow chip. GMI Cloud owns NVIDIA hardware across the US and APAC and serves 100+ text, image, video and audio models. Speed versus multimodal breadth.
When should I choose SambaNova over GMI Cloud?
Fast interactive decode on large open LLMs; Agents that switch models in milliseconds; Operators wanting air-cooled racks for existing data centers.
When should I choose GMI Cloud over SambaNova?
APAC data residency in Taiwan, Thailand or Malaysia; LLMs plus video, image and audio models on one API; Growing from shared endpoints to reserved GPUs.
Is SambaNova or GMI Cloud cheaper?
SambaNova: $0.22 in, $0.59 out (GPT-OSS 120B). GMI Cloud: $0.07 in, $0.40 out (GLM-4.7-Flash). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.
Which has more context, SambaNova or GMI Cloud?
SambaNova: Up to 192K (MiniMax M2.7). GMI Cloud: Varies by model.
Related comparisons
Running long-horizon agents?
If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious. Our inference stack treats a long-horizon trace as the primary workload, so speed, cost, and accuracy hold up deep into the trace.