Amazon Web Services launches $100M fund for generative AI startups

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a $100 million fund to support startups experimenting with generative artificial intelligence (AI) in a bid to increase its presence in the burgeoning industry.

Dubbed the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center, the fund is designed to connect machine learning (ML) AWS AI experts with a global customer base to fuel the design of new generative AI projects.

“The Generative AI Innovation Center is part of our goal to help every organization leverage AI by providing flexible and cost-effective generative AI services for the enterprise, alongside our team of generative AI experts to take advantage of all this new technology has to offer,” said AWS Senior Vice President of Sales Matt Garman.

Generative AI has taken the world by storm following the launch of Midjourney, ChatGPT, and Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Bard, given their extensive abilities in creating new content from scratch. While the AI industry is expected to reach a valuation of $15 trillion by 2030, McKinsey reported that generative AI has the potential to add as much as $4 trillion to the world’s economy each year.

The cloud-computing service provider disclosed that it would give a premium to solutions building in financial services, life sciences, healthcare, energy, and telecommunications. AWS states that the new fund is also designed to improve the state of its existing generative AI platforms for its customers.

The company’s range of AI tools includes Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) Bedrock, Amazon Titan, and Amazon CodeWhisperer, an AI-based coding companion.

“Amazon has more than 25 years of AI experience, and more than 100,000 customers have used AWS AI and ML services to address some of their biggest opportunities and challenges,” Garman said.

The $100 million AI fund comes on the heels of its 10-week program for generative platforms dabbling in foundational models, culminating in the launch of Amazon Bedrock. The new service allows firms to experiment with AI platforms using foundational models without the additional requirement of managing infrastructure.

Jostling for the top spot

Since the start of the year, several Big Tech firms have joined the race to play a leading role in developing AI firms. Google launched Bard to rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT, while Advance Micro Devices (AMD) unveiled a new AI chip to snag a piece of Nvidia’s market share.

Seeking to leverage its first-mover advantage, OpenAI launched a cybersecurity grant program for firms leveraging AI amid concerns about ChatGPT’s impact on digital assets, education, finance, and mass media.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with global regulators as part of a cross-continental tour seeking to ensure regulatory compliance for his firm amid mounting criticisms in Europe.

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