Contrary Research Rundown #40
Big companies align with cutting edge AI startups, and new memos on 1Password, Jobber and more
Research Rundown
Public cloud providers are engaged in fierce competition to partner with the leading AI companies as cloud customers or acquisition targets. Microsoft kicked off this race in 2019 when they invested $1 billion in OpenAI to help cover high cloud computing costs. Both companies now sell access to OpenAI’s technology, whether it’s ChatGPT, BingChat, or GitHub Co-Pilot. Microsoft sells the technology as part of Azure’s services, and OpenAI sells it directly. On the other hand, OpenAI has also collaborated with other companies, such as Salesforce, who are themselves challenging Microsoft's OpenAI applications. The partnership dynamics have reportedly created confusion and issues within Microsoft’s GTM.
Meanwhile, rivals of Microsoft have been looking to attract more AI customers and investments. Amazon, for example, has developed a ten-week program to support generative AI startups worldwide. Participants will receive AI models and tools, machine learning stack optimization, and customized go-to-market advice. Amazon is also introducing access to its own language model (Titan) as well as language models from startups AI21, Anthropic (backed by Google), and Stability AI (for transforming text into images). Google has also been investing in AI startups by providing cash and Google Cloud credits in exchange for an equity stake. For example, it has invested in Anthropic, a direct challenger to OpenAI. It has also made an investment in Runway, an AI-powered video creation and editing startup. Runway has announced a multi-year partnership with AWS as its preferred cloud provider.
As the biggest public cloud providers race to secure their positions over AI ecosystems, the enterprise giants are also getting into the game of startup investments. Nvidia, along with Oracle and Salesforce, have invested in Cohere, a generative AI startup founded by ex-Google Brain engineers specializing in large language models for enterprises. The chip giant has made 18 investments in startups since the start of 2021, including in Adept AI. Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of Salesforce, has doubled its Generative AI Fund, expanding it from $250 million to $500 million to support the AI ecosystem. It has also recently announced investments in Anthropic and Cohere.
The race is heating up as large corporates align with AI startups to compete for the cutting edge. For more coverage of the AI ecosystem, check out our memos on Cohere, OpenAI, Jasper, DeepL, Hugging Face, Descript, and AssemblyAI.
Jobber helps home service businesses modernize operations, increase earnings, and meet evolving consumer expectations. To learn more, read our full memo here.
Hive offers a suite of APIs that help companies to understand, search, moderate, and generate content. To learn more, read our full memo here.
Jellyfish is an engineering management platform that helps engineering leaders align their teams' work with business objectives. To learn more, read our full memo here.
1Password is a password manager providing businesses and consumers with a safe way to store and share passwords. To learn more, read our full memo here.
How Pixar used neural style transfer, a type of AI used to make photos look like popular artworks, to animate Ember, a lead character in its movie Elemental.
SpaceX launched Indonesia's largest telecoms satellite as part of a $540M project to offer internet in remote areas.
An overview of how the adoption of generative AI tools is transforming everyday work in legal contracts, professional services, filmmaking, and programming
Snap hopes to use My AI chatbot interactions to personalize ads; 150M+ Snapchat users, or ~20% of MAUs.
a16z, Sequoia, and others are increasing investments in defense tech startups; PitchBook says US VCs invested $33B in the sector in 2022.
Aviva, Fidelity, and other big institutional investors are increasingly pressuring tech companies to prevent AI misuse, concerned about potential liability.
Spotify plans a more expensive “Supremium” tier with HiFi audio, audiobooks, and more, launching outside the US later in 2023; Premium costs $9.99/month.
Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Activision's Bobby Kotick, and Sony's Jim Ryan plan to testify in court over the FTC's bid to block the Microsoft-Activision deal.
OpenAI is considering creating an App Store for AI Software.
In his new book The Coming Wave, DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman proposes a “modern Turing test” for AI.
Discord plans to let creators sell “Downloadables”, digital products available via one-time purchases and rolls out Media Channels in beta.
The US, EU, Japan, and India have committed over $100B combined for chip subsidies, as chipmakers argue costs have risen.
Google Cloud launched Anti Money Laundering AI, an API used by HSBC and others that relies on AI instead of the industry standard rules-based system.
Instagram now lets US users download Reels posted by public accounts for sharing outside the app, a feature TikTok has had for years.
Patreon adds free membership tiers for the first time and plans to let creators sell one-off digital products, including videos, podcasts, or downloadable files.
Q&A with Christopher Nolan, director of Oppenheimer, on AI benefits for images in filmmaking, the parallels between nuclear weapon development and AI.
Dropbox launched two AI tools: one to summarize documents and Dash, an ambitious universal search engine that aims to be “Google for your personal stuff.”
A look at the White House's urgent push for AI regulation as Biden meets with a group of AI experts for a non-industry perspective on risks and opportunities
Masayoshi Son said SoftBank plans to go on the “counteroffensive” soon by resuming AI investments.
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