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LLM.co · Private AI

Private AI & Custom AI Development

AI that never leaves the building.

LLM.co designs and builds custom AI systems and runs them as private AI on infrastructure you control: your rack, your cloud account, or a network with no way out. Your data stays home.

Reel 01 · IBM & SAGE computer rooms, 1956–5700:00:00:00
Two practices, one team

We build it. Then we run it where you say.

Most firms do one half. Consultancies build on public APIs and leave. Infrastructure vendors sell boxes with nothing useful on them. LLM.co does the software and the deployment, so the system that passes the demo is the one that passes the security review.

What private AI and custom AI development mean

Private AI is AI that runs on infrastructure you control. The models, prompts, documents and logs stay on your own servers, in your own cloud account or on an air-gapped network. Nothing is sent to an outside model provider, and nothing is used to train someone else's model.

Custom AI development is the work of building an AI system around one specific job in your business. It reads your records, follows your rules and writes its output into the systems your staff already use, such as the ERP, CRM, claims platform or document management system. Its quality is measured against real past cases from your own work.

Who private AI is for

Private AI suits organizations whose most useful data is also their most sensitive. That includes law firms and legal departments, healthcare providers, banks and insurers, government and defense contractors, manufacturers, utilities and professional services firms. It also suits any company whose contracts or policies forbid sending client data to a third party.

It makes financial sense once usage is broad and steady. Per-seat and per-token fees grow with every user. A private LLM on dedicated hardware has a fixed cost that does not.

Why the two belong together

A model on your own hardware is only useful once it is connected to your data and your workflow. A custom system built on a public API often fails the security review before launch. Doing both in one engagement avoids each problem. With private AI and custom AI development under one team, the system that wins the demo is the same one that clears your security review.

LLM.co builds every system on open-weight models such as Llama, Qwen, Mistral and gpt-oss. The same code that passes the prototype runs on-premises, in your cloud account or air-gapped, with single sign-on, document permissions and audit logging added before wide release.

How LLM.co works with you

Engagements start with a two-week discovery sprint to rank use cases, check the data and model the cost. A focused first system usually reaches production in eight to twelve weeks. Every phase ends with a go / no-go decision, and you own the code, prompts, evaluation sets and any trained weights.

Reel 02 · SAGE air-defense console, 1956Every console in the room answered to the people in it.
Why private

Computing used to live in the building.

In 1958 nobody shipped NASA's data to someone else's computer. The machine was in the room. Public AI reversed that: prompts, files and customer records now travel to a vendor's GPUs. We put the computer back where your data is.

1958
IBM 704 at NASA Ames, 1958
FIG. 01 IBM 704, NASA Ames

The computer is a room you can walk into. Every byte stays inside it.

2023
Rows of supercomputer racks in a data center
FIG. 07 Shared GPU fleet

AI arrives as an API. Your data leaves to reach it, and you rent the model by the token.

Now
A modern black mainframe cabinet
FIG. 08 Your rack

Open-weight models handle most business work well. The computer comes back inside.

Same rule as the mainframe era: the data stays with the people responsible for it.

See where it can run →
Process

From scoping call to running in your rack.

Fixed-scope phases with a go / no-go at the end of each one. You can stop after any phase and keep everything built so far. How we work

012 wks

Scope

Pick the workflow worth automating and prove the numbers.

  • Use-case ranking
  • Data audit
  • Cost model
023–4 wks

Prototype

A working build on your real data, scored against an eval set.

  • Eval set v1
  • Model bake-off
  • Pilot UI
034–6 wks

Harden

Make it safe to give to hundreds of people and an auditor.

  • Red-team
  • SSO + RBAC
  • Audit logging
041–2 wks

Deploy

Installed on your hardware or in your cloud account.

  • GPU sizing
  • Runbooks
  • Handover
05Ongoing

Operate

Monitoring, model upgrades and retraining as the work changes.

  • Drift alerts
  • Model swaps
  • Quarterly evals
Public API vs. private AI

Know where your prompts go.

Public model APIs are a fine place to experiment. For regulated data, client files and anything you would not email to a stranger, here is what changes.

Public AI APILLM.co private AI
Where prompts goThe vendor's serversYour network. Nowhere else.
Who holds the weightsThe vendorYou. Copied to your storage.
Model choiceThe vendor's catalog, changed on their scheduleAny open-weight model, pinned until you upgrade
Cost shapePer token, rises with every new userFixed hardware or reserved GPU, flat at scale
Audit trailThe vendor's logs, on requestEvery call in your SIEM, retained by your policy
Works offlineNoYes. Air-gap ready.
Deployment models

Pick the room it runs in.

The same system ships to any of these targets. Start in your cloud account, move on-prem when volume justifies the hardware.

Models we deploy
LlamaQwenMistralDeepSeekGemmagpt-ossPhiWhisper
Hardware we size for
NVIDIA H200H100L40SRTX 6000AMD MI300XApple Silicon
Questions

Asked on every scoping call.

What is private AI?

Private AI means the models, your prompts and your documents all stay on infrastructure you control. That can be your own servers, your own cloud account or an air-gapped network. Nothing is sent to a third-party model provider, and no outside company can use your data to train its models.

What is custom AI development?

It is the design and build of an AI system for one specific workflow in your business. Examples include agents that act inside your ERP, search across your contracts and policies, and models fine-tuned on your own records. Each system is scored against an evaluation set built from your real past cases.

Are open-weight models good enough?

For most business work, yes. Extraction, search, summarization, drafting and agent tasks on your own data run well on current open-weight models. We run a bake-off against your evaluation set in the Prototype phase, so you see the scores for each candidate before you commit to hardware.

Do we have to buy GPUs?

No. Most clients start with dedicated GPUs in their own cloud account and move on-premises once usage is steady. During discovery we size both options and show the month when owned hardware breaks even against cloud rental.

Who owns what you build?

You do. Source code, prompts, evaluation sets, fine-tuned weights and infrastructure code are delivered to your repositories. There is no platform license and no per-seat fee. If you stop working with us after any phase, you keep everything built up to that point.

What does a first project cost?

The discovery sprint is a fixed fee. Builds are quoted one phase at a time after discovery, so you never sign for more than the next step. Cost depends mostly on the number of integrations, the condition of your data, your approval and audit requirements, and where the system will run.

How long until a system is in production?

The discovery sprint takes two weeks. A focused first system usually reaches production in eight to twelve weeks after that. The build runs as Prototype in three to four weeks, Harden in four to six, and Deploy in one to two. Integrations and internal review cycles affect where a project lands.

Is private AI secure enough for regulated data?

It is built to fit your existing controls. Users sign in through your identity provider, permissions mirror your source systems, data stays on infrastructure you control and every action is logged to your SIEM. We document data flows so the system can support your HIPAA, GLBA, SOC 2 or CMMC program.

Start here

Submit a job card.

Tell us the workflow and where the data lives. An engineer, not a salesperson, replies within one business day with a first take on architecture and cost.

Job cardLLM.CO · FORM 704-A
Practice
Where should it run?
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate