(Reuters) - Networking gear maker Juniper Networks has invested in artificial intelligence firm Recogni as part of a $102 million late-stage funding round, the companies said on Tuesday.

Recogni said it will collaborate with Juniper Networks to build an AI inference system that can be installed in server racks.

Cloud service providers have been investing billions in data center infrastructure, including servers for training AI models and AI inferencing, which involves models making predictions or decisions based on new and unseen data.

"Currently, we're focused on being an infrastructure supplier into data centers, providing the compute that's needed to run the largest generative AI multimodal models," Recogni CEO Marc Bolitho told Reuters.

Earlier this year, Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it would buy Juniper Networks for $14 billion in an all-cash deal, as it looks to spruce up the company's AI offerings.

The AI startup is developing its second chip for generative AI with chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and the inference system is set to go into production in 2026, Recogni said.

The startup in August unveiled a novel computing method that could make its chips used to train and run artificial intelligence systems smaller, faster and less expensive to operate.

The fundraising round was co-led by venture capital firms Celesta Capital and GreatPoint Ventures, the startup said; however, it did not disclose a valuation figure.

Venture capital arms of BMW, Bosch and Toyota had invested in the AI firm previously.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)