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A year-old AI startup Inflection AI, led by CEO Mustafa Suleyman, has secured $1.3 billion in their latest round of funding. This comes less than two months after the launch of their personal chatbot Pi.
Playing with big bucks from the start, the company is the product of tech giants Microsoft and NVIDIA. Apart from the two companies, this round of funding comes from influential figures like Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, and Eric Schmidt. Inflection’s latest funding round values the company at $4 billion, according to a source familiar with the transaction.
It’s the fourth biggest raise for an AI startup ever, excluding multiple rounds raised by the same companies. With this funding, Inflection has raised a total of $1. 5. The company looks to use this fund to enhance technology capabilities, bringing in more personalised conversational experience to end users and more.
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Suleyman revealed that the additional investment came after receiving numerous offers following the successful launch of Pi, which is a conversational chatbot introduced in May this year. He expressed confidence in the future potential of chatbots, stating that “conversation is the new interface.”
While specific details of the deal with Microsoft and NVIDIA were not disclosed, Suleyman clarified that the majority of the $1.3 billion raised was in cash, ensuring that Inflection has sufficient funds to operate. The equity stake held by Microsoft and Nvidia in Inflection remains undisclosed, but Suleyman emphasised that the companies do not have control over the business or any preferential rights. He reassured that the funding round followed a traditional structure, with no intellectual property transfers, and Inflection retained its independence and freedom to pursue commercial partnerships.
Inflection Pi
Pi which stands for ‘Personal Intelligence’ is engineered to be a kind and supportive companion offering conversations, friendly advice, and concise information in a natural, flowing style, like the friendliest person. Launched only in May this year, the AI chatbot has mostly received positive feedback.
The primary objective of Inflection AI is to develop a universal AI-powered digital assistant. This type of assistant is seen by many technologists, including Bill Gates, as the future of human-computer interaction. “Whoever wins the personal agent, that’s the big thing, because you will never go to a search site again, you will never go to a productivity site, you’ll never go to Amazon again,” Gates said at an event recently.
Generative AI Startups on Funding Spree
Investors have poured billions of dollars into AI startups this year, mostly on companies specialising in generative AI. Earlier today, RunwayML also announced $141 million in funding from investors including Google, NVIDIA, and Salesforce. This funding is an extension of a $50 million Series C round led by Felicis Ventures. With this funding, Runway has now raised a total of $237 million.
The New York-based startup is focused on AI film and editing tools and aims to explore the potential of generative AI for video content. The latest funding round values Runway at $1.5 billion. CEO Cris Valenzuela stated that the funds will be used for further research in video and image generation AI models. A few weeks ago, a month-old AI startup Mistral AI also announced a $113M seed round at a $260M valuation.
