However, the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly investigating Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI for potential antitrust violations. Despite this, the majority of these deals are not expected to face regulatory scrutiny. The article also mentions several other AI startups that have recently raised funding, including Essential AI, Durable, and Chalk. The piece concludes with related reading and Crunchbase Pro queries for further information on AI investments by Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, Microsoft, Google, and GV.
Key takeaways:
- Mistral AI received a massive $487 million investment at a reported valuation of $2 billion, with big corporates like Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, and Salesforce 1 contributing significantly.
- Nvidia has made 18 different deals into AI and AI-related startups this year, including 16 deals that were $100 million or more. Salesforce’s venture arm has taken part in a baker’s dozen of deals, including Anthropic’s $450 million Series C and Cohere’s $270 million round in May.
- Microsoft has invested in eight AI-related startups, with its $10 billion deal with OpenAI being the biggest round of the year in any sector. Google has made 16 deals in the AI space involving VC-backed startups, including big rounds for Anthropic and Hugging Face.
- Reports broke last week that the Federal Trade Commission is looking at Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI and whether it may violate antitrust laws. This highlights the scrutiny on big tech’s role in nurturing AI technology.