Google, Microsoft invest in AI startups as battle for dominance heats up

In an escalating battle for market share within the AI sector, Google and Microsoft have made new strategic startup investments as they vie for dominance.

Google invests in Runway

The Info reported June 1 that Google had invested in Runway, an AI startup acclaimed for its text-to-video software, as a part of a $100 million funding spherical.

This funding has boosted Runway’s valuation to $1.5 billion and is anticipated to instigate a serious transition from Amazon Net Companies (AWS) to Google’s cloud servers.

Earlier this 12 months, Google additionally poured $400 million into Anthropic, a rival of OpenAI, and signed agreements with Midjourney and Character AI, additional solidifying its funding technique.

Google’s sturdy backing of those AI startups, together with Runway’s text-to-video software, Midjourney’s text-to-image expertise, and Character AI’s chatbot capabilities, underlines the tech big’s intention to assist and broaden burgeoning AI expertise.

Such strategic investments carefully mirror the tech trade’s broader concentrate on AI, following on the heels of Microsoft’s funding in OpenAI.

Microsoft invests in CoreWeave

Microsoft has additionally been actively investing within the AI sector, with CNBC reporting a doubtlessly multi-billion greenback cope with CoreWeave, a startup backed by Nvidia.

CoreWeave offers simplified entry to Nvidia’s graphics processing models (GPUs), extensively considered among the many greatest available on the market for operating AI fashions. This settlement will bolster Microsoft’s efforts to satisfy the exponential demand for AI-powered companies, concurrently positioning itself in competitors with Google.

This CoreWeave funding comes on the heels of the startup elevating $200 million in funding and attaining a $2 billion valuation.

CoreWeave was based in 2017 and has grown quickly, with its income multiplying from 2022 to 2023. With the surge in generative AI demand, Microsoft’s acquisition of further entry to Nvidia’s GPUs by CoreWeave demonstrates a strategic response to the escalating AI rush.

Each Google’s and Microsoft’s methods, whereas distinctive of their method, share a standard aim of harnessing AI’s transformative potential, bolstered by the market’s fervent enthusiasm for the expertise.