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Joaquim Cardoso MSc
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June 29, 2023
Key messages:
Inflection AI, a “personal AI” startup, raised $1.3 billion in funding, led by Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, and Nvidia.
- The funding values Inflection AI at $4 billion.
- The total amount raised by Inflection AI now exceeds $1.5 billion.
Inflection AI, in collaboration with CoreWeave and Nvidia, is building the “largest AI cluster in the world” and has developed large language models for its AI-powered assistant called Pi.
Runway, an AI image generator company, raised a $141 million extension to its Series C funding. It had previously raised $50 million in December.
Typeface, a generative AI startup focused on enterprise content creation, raised a $100 million Series B round led by Salesforce Ventures, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona, GV, Menlo Ventures, and M12.
Google (GV) and Salesforce Ventures invested in the funding rounds for both Runway and Typeface.
AI Funding Explosion: Inflection AI Nabs $1.3B, Runway and Typeface Also Raise Big
News Crunch
Chris Metinko
June 29, 2023
Who says the venture capital market has slowed?
Certainly not any AI startup at this point. On Thursday, three such startups announced more than $1.5 billion in investments — led by “personal AI” startup Inflection AI ‘s huge $1.3 billion round.
That funding, led by Microsoft, Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt and new investor Nvidia, values Inflection AI at $4 billion, according to Forbes, which first reported the news. The new funding brings the total raised by Inflection to more than $1.5 billion, per the company.
Inflection AI, with its partners CoreWeave and Nvidia, is building what it says will be the “largest AI cluster in the world” and has created large language models to allow people to interact with its AI-powered assistant called Pi, or Personal AI. Pi lets people quickly receive relevant information and advice on their interests.
Founded last year, the generative AI platform is a competitor to other AI firms such as OpenAI and Google. It was co-founded by Mustafa Suleyman, who previously co-founded the Google-owned AI lab DeepMind and serves as CEO at Inflection.
But that’s not all
Of course, one big round is not newsworthy in AI — even though Inflection’s raise is the second-largest this year, behind only Microsoft’s massive $10 billion investment in OpenAI.
New York-based Runway also raised a $141 million extension to its December $50 million Series C from Google, Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures 1 and existing investors, among others.
The round was first reported about two months ago by Business Insider. At that time, it was reported the money was from a cloud service provider and would value the company at $1.5 billion.
Runway helped develop the AI image generator Stable Diffusion, and launched its video-to-video generative AI app in April. The app lets users transform videos into different styles, such as claymation or watercolors.
Founded in 2018, the company has raised nearly $240 million, per Crunchbase.
Finally, San Francisco-based generative AI startup Typeface — which launched in February with a $65 million raise — also announced on Thursday it has raised a $100 million Series B.
The round was led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona, GV, Menlo Ventures and M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund).
The company’s AI platform helps with enterprise content creation such as product shots, blog posts, social media ads and job posts that meet brand specifications.
Big money, big names
While the dollar numbers are eye-catching, so are the names of the investors.
Inflection’s round includes some of the biggest names of individuals in tech, and also includes Microsoft. Microsoft’s VC arm also invested in the Typeface round.
Nvidia, whose stock price has shot up thanks to the importance of its chips in the AI process, took part in both the Inflection and Runway raises.
Google — or GV — and Salesforce Ventures both participated in the rounds for Runway and Typeface.
It seems like no tech giant wants to be left behind in AI — no matter the price.
Originally published at https://news.crunchbase.com on June 29, 2023.
