Rescale

Rescale is a San Francisco-based enterprise software company focused on high-performance computing, cloud management, and computer-aided engineering. Its central proposition is to make advanced scientific and engineering computation available through a managed software layer rather than requiring every organization to build, operate, and continually upgrade its own specialized supercomputing infrastructure. The company describes this approach as “Intelligent Computing for Digital R&D,” linking computing resources, engineering applications, workflow automation, security controls, and financial governance in one operating environment. The company was founded in 2011 by Joris Poort and Adam McKenzie, who had previously worked at Boeing. Their experience included software work connected with the 787 Dreamliner program; the reference material states that technology developed by the founders produced $180 million in savings by optimizing the aircraft’s weight. Rescale subsequently launched through Y Combinator and developed a business aimed at organizations whose research, design, and development workloads are too computationally intensive or variable for conventional enterprise infrastructure. Rescale’s platform is designed to coordinate high-performance computing across public clouds, multiple cloud providers, and on-premises data centers. This hybrid and multi-cloud control-plane model is intended to reduce the operational complexity associated with provisioning compute capacity, configuring workloads, managing software environments, controlling access, and monitoring spending. Rather than selling a single hardware system, Rescale provides software and managed access to computing architectures suited to particular technical workloads. The company serves sectors in which simulation, optimization, modeling, and data-intensive computation are central to product development. These include aerospace, automotive, pharmaceuticals, computational genomics, industrial manufacturing, electronic design automation, and semiconductor development. Its ecosystem includes infrastructure relationships with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Oracle Cloud Platform, as well as integrations or strategic relationships with engineering software providers such as ANSYS, AutoForm, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Dassault Systèmes, and MSC Software. Rescale’s positioning is particularly relevant to manufacturers and engineering organizations that need to run complex simulation or optimization jobs but lack sufficient in-house high-performance computing hardware. The platform can allow such users to access different architectures according to workload requirements, while giving IT and high-performance computing teams centralized controls over security, architecture selection, and cost. This places Rescale between conventional enterprise software, cloud infrastructure management, and specialized technical-computing services. By 2015, the company stated that it had established a globally available high-performance computing network supporting hybrid and multi-cloud operations. Its financing history includes backing from venture investors and technology companies, including NVIDIA, Microsoft’s M12, Hitachi, Samsung, Initialized Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz, along with individual investors such as Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Chris Dixon, Paul Graham, and Peter Thiel. The reference material states that Rescale had raised more than $200 million by 2022 and had achieved a valuation above $1 billion, making it the first cloud high-performance-computing company described as a unicorn. Rescale remains a private company whose business is centered on digital engineering, cloud-based technical computing, and the software-defined management of complex research and development workloads.

Rescale was established in 2011 in San Francisco by Joris Poort and Adam McKenzie. The founders had worked at Boeing, where their software experience included technology associated with optimizing the weight of the 787 Dreamliner. According to the reference material, that work generated $180 million in savings, helping establish the founders’ focus on computational engineering and the economic value of software-assisted design optimization. The company launched through Y Combinator and developed around the idea that engineering organizations should be able to obtain specialized computing capacity as an on-demand service. Traditional high-performance computing environments often require substantial capital investment, dedicated administrators, software installation and licensing work, and long procurement cycles. Rescale’s model sought to abstract much of that complexity through a software platform capable of coordinating technical workloads across cloud and physical infrastructure. By 2015, Rescale had established what the reference material characterizes as the largest globally available high-performance computing network. The network supported hybrid and multi-cloud operations, allowing users to combine public-cloud resources with on-premises data centers and to select computing architectures according to the needs of particular workloads. This approach was aimed at organizations running simulations, optimization studies, modeling, and other computationally intensive tasks in product development and scientific research. Rescale’s focus expanded across several industries. Aerospace and automotive companies could use high-performance computing for simulation and design exploration; pharmaceutical and computational-genomics organizations could apply it to research workloads; and manufacturers, semiconductor companies, and electronic-design-automation users could use it for specialized modeling and verification tasks. The company also built relationships with engineering software vendors, including ANSYS, AutoForm, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Dassault Systèmes, and MSC Software. Infrastructure partnerships included Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Oracle Cloud Platform. The company’s product direction centered on a hybrid and multi-cloud control plane for digital research and development. In addition to providing access to compute capacity, Rescale’s platform was intended to automate workload setup and execution while giving IT and high-performance computing teams centralized controls related to security, architecture, and financial management. This positioned the company as a layer between engineering applications and underlying infrastructure. Rescale attracted funding from a mixture of venture investors, technology companies, and prominent individual backers. The cited investors include NVIDIA, Microsoft’s M12, Hitachi, Samsung, Initialized Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz, as well as Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Chris Dixon, Paul Graham, and Peter Thiel. By 2022, the company had reportedly raised more than $200 million and reached a valuation above $1 billion. The reference material describes this achievement as making Rescale the first unicorn in cloud high-performance computing. Rescale’s continuing identity is that of a private enterprise software company serving technical organizations. Its long-term business proposition is to make advanced computing easier to consume, govern, and scale for digital engineering and scientific research, particularly where workloads are too demanding, specialized, or variable for ordinary enterprise systems.

1. 2023Recognition as a leading company

   The reference material states that Rescale was recognized as a top company as recently as 2023.

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2. 2022Unicorn valuation

   Rescale had raised more than $200 million and reached a valuation above $1 billion, according to the cited reference material.

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3. 2015Globally available high-performance computing network

   The company established a globally available HPC network supporting hybrid and multi-cloud operations across major cloud providers and on-premises data centers.

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4. 2011Company founded in San Francisco

   Joris Poort and Adam McKenzie founded Rescale to address the complexity of computational engineering and high-performance computing.

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5. 2011Launch through Y Combinator

   Rescale launched through Y Combinator, supporting its early development as a software company focused on technical computing.

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Rescale positions itself as an enterprise software and computing platform for digital research and development. It targets engineering, scientific, and manufacturing organizations that need scalable high-performance computing without operating all of the required hardware and software infrastructure themselves. Its differentiation is the combination of workload automation, access to multiple cloud and on-premises environments, engineering-application integrations, and governance over security, architecture, and spending.

• Rescale intelligent computing platformEnterprise software platform

  Rescale’s principal software environment for digital research and development connects engineering and scientific workloads with computing resources distributed across public clouds, multiple cloud providers, and on-premises data centers. It is designed to simplify workload setup and execution while providing organizational controls for security, architecture selection, and financial governance. The platform is intended for computationally intensive simulation, modeling, optimization, and related technical workflows.

• High-performance computing as a serviceCloud computing service

  Rescale provides on-demand access to high-performance computing resources for organizations that may not possess sufficient specialized hardware. Users can run demanding technical workloads on computing architectures suited to their applications, reducing the need to procure and maintain all capacity internally. The service is relevant to aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, semiconductor, and other scientific or engineering use cases.

• Hybrid and multi-cloud control planeCloud management software

  The control-plane offering coordinates high-performance computing workloads across major public-cloud environments and on-premises data centers. Its purpose is to give IT and HPC teams a consistent operational layer despite differences among infrastructure providers. Rescale emphasizes automation together with controls over access, security, architecture, and expenditure, making the product suitable for enterprise environments with governance requirements.

• Engineering simulation and optimization workflowsComputer-aided engineering infrastructure

  Rescale supports computational workflows used in computer-aided engineering, including simulation and optimization tasks. The platform’s engineering-software ecosystem includes relationships with ANSYS, AutoForm, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Dassault Systèmes, and MSC Software. These integrations help organizations connect specialized engineering applications with scalable computing resources for product development and digital experimentation.

• 2015Build a globally available hybrid and multi-cloud HPC networkStrategy

  Engineering and scientific organizations often require more computing capacity than their internal infrastructure can provide, while workloads can vary significantly by project and application.

  What changed. Rescale established a globally available high-performance computing network and developed support for operations spanning major cloud providers and on-premises data centers.

  Aftermath. The strategy became central to Rescale’s positioning as a software layer for scalable digital R&D and workload-specific technical computing.

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• Develop a broad cloud and engineering-software partner ecosystemStrategy

  Technical computing customers need both infrastructure capacity and compatibility with specialized engineering applications.

  What changed. Rescale formed strategic relationships with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud Platform, and engineering software companies including ANSYS, AutoForm, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Dassault Systèmes, and MSC Software.

  Aftermath. The ecosystem supports Rescale’s role as an intermediary platform connecting digital engineering applications with cloud and data-center computing resources.

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• 2022Rescale raises more than $200 million and reaches unicorn valuation

  By 2022, Rescale had reportedly raised more than $200 million and achieved a valuation above $1 billion, reflecting investor interest in cloud-based high-performance computing for technical and engineering workloads.

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• Rescale expands its cloud and engineering software partnership ecosystem

  Rescale developed strategic relationships with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Oracle Cloud Platform, and engineering software companies including ANSYS, AutoForm, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Dassault Systèmes, and MSC Software.

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1. Rescale