Parallel Works is a company that aims to democratize HPC and AI and solve many of the challenges of hybrid multi-cloud computing. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Parallel Works CEO Matthew Shaxted to learn more about the company.
Matthew Shaxted’s Background
What is Matthew Shaxted’s background? Shaxted said:
“My background is in engineering – I studied civil engineering and began my career working at architecture and engineering firms. In those roles, I became a go-to person for modeling and simulation. Designers would bring me complex design challenges, and my job was to run simulations to identify the most high-performing solutions. My work spanned various physics areas including energy modeling, solar analysis, structural evaluations and fluid dynamics – especially for large-scale commercial buildings and campuses.”
“Over time, my focus shifted to urban-scale modeling, which required evaluating trade-offs between different city-scale solutions. To do that effectively, I needed significant computing power. Eventually I built my own render farm by networking 30 desktops running Linux into a cluster to offload simulations. Yet, even that wasn’t enough to meet the growing need.”
“That’s when I found my way to Argonne National Lab, where I met Mike Wilde, and together we found Parallel Works. With Mike’s open source workflow technology, we scaled simulation campaigns from small clusters to massive 20,000 core systems, running simulations at scales I’d never imagined.”
“From these collaborations, we decided to start Parallel Works. We took the open-source technology Mike had developed and built a user-friendly front end around it, making powerful computing resources more accessible to those who needed them – without all the complexity. That’s how it all started.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Shaxted shared:
“I had been building my own small clusters to handle complex simulations, but when I gained access to the supercomputers at Argonne, it completely changed my perspective. I was running simulations across much larger systems cores, and it dawned on us that this level of high-performance computing (HPC) power shouldn’t be limited to national labs or giant corporations. What if we could bring this capability to a much broader audience?”
“That’s when we decided to start the company with a mission to democratize HPC – making it accessible to organizations and individuals who needed serious computing power but lacked the infrastructure. Over time, we expanded from supporting batch HPC schedulers to integrating with multi-cloud environments, and now into hybrid computing and enterprise AI workloads. The goal has always been to lower the barriers to entry and empower more people to access the type of computing that was once reserved for only specialized experts.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Shaxted reflected:
“One of my favorite moments was landing our first major customer. They were using our platform for large-scale flood modeling to assess storm damage for major infrastructure projects across the globe. It wasn’t just a technical win – it was when we truly saw the real-world impact of what we’d built.”
“They were simulating how floods would move through cities, identifying where the damage would be the worst and how to prepare. This wasn’t abstract science – this was about people’s homes, infrastructure, entire communities. Seeing our technology help in those efforts was the moment I realized we weren’t just building a product; we were building something that could genuinely make a difference.”
Challenges Faced
What challenges have Shaxted and the team faced while building the company? Shaxted acknowledged:
“One of the biggest challenges was timing. When we started over 10 years ago, cloud computing wasn’t yet on par with on-premises systems from performance and cost perspectives. It took time for the technology to catch up with our vision, but we stayed committed.”
“Another challenge was building a company without institutional backing. We’ve focused on being profitable and running lean, which meant competing with companies that had far more resources. But that became our strength – it forced us to innovate quickly and punch above our weight. Now that the cloud has caught up and enterprise AI adoption is requiring software tools like ours, we’re in a strong position to lead.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since its launch? Shaxted noted:
“From the start, our mission was to democratize access to high-performance computing (HPC) and technical compute resources, for scientists, engineers, and researchers. Over time, the landscape has shifted, and so have we.”
“Today, we’re at the intersection of HPC and AI. What was once supercomputing is now the backbone for training AI models and handling advanced inference workloads. We’ve expanded beyond HPC into broader enterprise computing, managing complex infrastructure including accelerator clusters, GPU environments, virtualized and hybrid systems.”
“As computing becomes more complex, our tools simplify it. We focus on the “last mile” to end users – making powerful systems easier to use, whether for simulations or AI training – without requiring expertise in infrastructure. We’re making these workflows faster, more accessible and more manageable.”
Revenue
When asking Shaxted about the company’s revenue, he revealed:
“We’re a profitable, cash flow positive business, a result of our focus on building a sustainable, capital-efficient company from the start.”
“However, with the recent surge in demand driven by enterprise AI and advanced computing, we’re actively exploring strategic funding options to support our next phase of growth. The market is evolving quickly, and we want to be well-positioned to scale with that momentum.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Shaxted affirmed:
“Our platform stands out for its depth and flexibility. While many competitors focus on Kubernetes, we support a wide range of schedulers and infrastructures, including traditional HPC systems, hyperscale clouds, and emerging AI workloads.”
“We’re also vendor-neutral, unlike many companies tied to specific cloud, chip architecture, or ecosystems. Our platform works across chipsets, clouds, and on-prem environments, offering enterprise customers true flexibility and control as their computing needs evolve.”
“We meet organizations where they are, not where we think they should be. That’s especially important for companies with complex enterprise requirements beyond Kubernetes.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Shaxted emphasized:
“We aim to bridge the gap between advanced computing and the IT teams, enabling enterprise AI at scale. As AI and HPC converge, we’re focused on providing scalable AI solutions that leverage partial compute, without overprovisioning costly resources.”
“Our goal is to build a future where computing is dynamic, distributed, and efficient. Our platform gives enterprises the flexibility, control, and performance they need to scale smart, not just big.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Shaxted cited:
“Parallel Works has reached key milestones that reflect our growth, innovation, and industry validation. In 2020, we achieved product-market fit, laying a strong foundation by aligning our platform with the needs of early adopters. In 2021, we secured our first federal customer, NOAA, establishing credibility in the public sector. In 2022, we expanded with a multi-cloud launch across AWS, GCP, and Azure. In 2023, we developed a high-security platform for the Department of Defense, showcasing our ability to meet the most stringent security and compliance requirements. In 2024, we relaunched a fully rebuilt version of our commercial product, now known as ACTIVATE, and were named a Top Cloud Platform by HPCwire, a recognition that highlights our leadership in the high-performance cloud computing space.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Shaxted concluded:
Our customers are doing some truly innovative and impactful work. For example, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine uses our platform to streamline access to computing resources, accelerating critical biomedical research in genomics, pathology, and drug development. We power NOAA’s R&D computing environments on both the weather and water sides, especially as their physics codes augment with ML-based inference models.
Similarly, Orion Space Solutions, an Arcfield company, leverages our technology to power a digital twin of Earth’s thermosphere and ionosphere, advancing space weather research with implications for satellite operations and global communications.
