IBM introduced the launch of a $500 million Enterprise AI Venture Fund on Nov. 7 that, in accordance to the corporate, can be focused on “accelerating generative AI technology and research for the enterprise.”
Focused on accelerating #genAI expertise and analysis for the enterprise, IBM introduced the launch of a $500M enterprise fund to put money into #AI firms. Learn extra: https://t.co/RqXLLvfOq0 pic.twitter.com/CQKAtzyolM
— IBM News (@IBMNews) November 7, 2023
Generative AI merchandise for the patron market, equivalent to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, have dominated the newswaves in 2023.
IBM is primarily targeted on enterprise-level options for its generative AI merchandise, equivalent to its Watson X platform and quite a few cloud choices.
According to Rob Thomas, senior vp at IBM, generative AI applied sciences can be a driving pressure for productiveness and profitability all through the subsequent decade:
“AI is slated to unlock nearly $16 trillion in productivity by 2030. With the launch of the IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund, we’re opening another channel to harness the enormous potential of the AI revolution into tangible, positive outcomes for IBM and the companies we invest in.”
Details stay scarce as to precisely how IBM intends to make investments its new $500 million AI Venture Fund. Per an organization weblog put up, the fund will primarily concentrate on generative AI tech and can be used “to invest in a range of AI companies – from early-stage to hyper-growth startups.”
This fund follows IBM’s participation in a $235 million Series D funding spherical in August for generative AI agency Hugging Face, an organization identified for its in depth transformer libraries — foundational items of expertise for generative pretrained transformer (GPT) AI fashions.
Related: Biden AI executive order ‘certainly challenging’ for open-source AI — Industry insiders
With the current slate of investments, together with taking part in machine studying safety platform Hidden Layer’s Series A spherical, IBM continues its ongoing pattern of investing in enterprise AI startups whereas actively supporting the event of open-source platforms, fashions and protocols.
“With hundreds of open models on the Hugging Face hub, they are significantly boosting the open-source ecosystem,” mentioned Hugging Face co-founder and CEO Clem Delangue, in an IBM press launch. “This is the reason why we wanted to have them join our series D round,” he continued, including, “I am convinced that they’ll be able to accelerate their impact on AI with the IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund.”