Tech giant, Amazon Web Service (AWS) has announced a $230 million fund for startups globally to accelerate the creation of generative AI applications.
The company disclosed this on Thursday via a statement on its website.
According to AWS, the fund would provide startups, especially early-stage companies, with AWS credits, mentorship, and education to further their use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies.
It added that part of the new commitment will fund the second cohort of the AWS Generative AI Accelerator, a program that provides hands-on expertise and up to $1 million in credits to each of the top 80 early-stage startups that are using generative AI to solve complex challenges.
Applications for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator opened on Thursday and will be accepted until July 19, 2024. Startups can apply here.
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The AWS Generative AI Accelerator identifies top early-stage startups that are using generative AI to solve complex challenges in areas such as financial services, healthcare and life sciences, media and entertainment, business, and climate change, among others.
According to AWS, participants will access sessions on ML performance enhancement, stack optimization, and go-to-market strategies.
The 10-week program will match participants with both business and technical mentors based on industry verticals.
Startups will receive up to $1 million each in AWS credits to help them build, train, test, and launch their generative AI solutions.
They will also have access to industry experts, technology, and technical sessions from NVIDIA, the program’s presenting partner, and be invited to join the NVIDIA Inception program, designed to nurture cutting-edge startups.
The company said it would announce selected startups for the second cohort on September 10, and the program would kick off on October 1 with in-person sessions at Amazon’s Seattle campus.
Tech giants pumping money into AI
AWS’ announcement came as the latest of several initiatives targeted at AI startups that have been announced recently.
Late last year, global payment company, Visa, announced a $100 million generative AI ventures initiative to invest in the next generation of companies focused on developing generative AI technologies and applications that will impact the future of commerce and payments.
In April this year, Toyota Ventures, the early-stage venture capital arm of Toyota, also announced two $150 million funds to expand its investments in startups developing disruptive technologies and business models at the forefront of innovation.
According to the company, the fund would focus on startups at the cutting edge of deep technology in areas like AI, robotics, mobility, cloud, and quantum computing, to expand Toyota Ventures’ international presence.
Earlier in March, Amazon announced a $2.75 billion investment in artificial intelligence startup Anthropic, its largest venture deal.
Anthropic is the developer behind the AI model Claude, which competes with GPT from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, and Google’s Gemini.
These tech giants, along with Meta and Apple are all racing to integrate generative AI into their vast portfolios of products and features to ensure they do not fall behind in a market that’s predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within the next ten years.
