Anindita Nayak
Bhubaneswar, June 14, 2024
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a $230 million investment commitment to support startups that are working in the development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) applications globally.
The initiative will give early-stage companies AWS cloud credits, guidance, and training to help them use AI and machine learning technologies, the company said in a statement.
Out of the total committed investment, around $80 million will fund Amazon’s second AWS Generative AI Accelerator programme that aims to position AWS as an attractive cloud infrastructure choice for startups developing Gen AI models to power their products, apps, and services.
“With this new effort, we will help startups launch and scale world-class businesses, providing the building blocks they need to unleash new AI applications that will impact all facets of how the world learns, connects, and does business,” Matt Wood, VP of AI products at AWS, said in a statement.
Participating startups will get AWS credits for computing, storage, databases, and custom AI chips. Training generative AI models, like those behind ChatGPT, needs a lot of computing power, which can quickly drain a startup’s funds.
Amazon like other technology giants is betting big on GenAI technology. It has set up a $100 million AWS Generative AI Innovation Centre to promote innovation in this space. It is also providing free credits for startups using major AI models along with its Project Olympus model.
Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission began looking into how big tech companies were investing in AI startups, asking for more details from firms like AWS.
The competition regulators in the EU and Britain are investigating collaborations between AI firms and their American big tech counterparts. AWS is the world leader in cloud computing with 31% share of the global cloud services market. Microsoft’s Azure is ranked second with 25% market share, while Google has 11% share. During the first quarter of 2024, AWS reported a record revenue of $25 billion, representing an increase of 17% over the same period last year.
