IBM is launching a $500 million venture fund to invest in AI companies, aiming to accelerate generative AI technology and research for businesses. The IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund will invest in AI leaders, providing them with opportunities to develop partnerships with IBM and gain operational expertise. IBM’s AI and data platform, watsonx, will play a key role in this initiative. IBM has recently invested in AI companies such as Hugging Face, an open-source collaboration platform for machine learning, and HiddenLayer, a security provider for AI models. The fund is part of IBM’s strategy to leverage AI models to accelerate open innovation.
IBM Launches $500 Million AI Venture Fund
A multinational technology company, IBM has launched a $500 million venture fund. The fund aims to invest in various AI companies, ranging from early-stage to hyper-growth startups. The focus is on accelerating generative AI technology and research for businesses. The IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund will invest in current and future AI companies that are helping businesses globally to harness the potential of AI.
The fund is led by a dedicated team at IBM with extensive experience in investment and enterprise AI. The team will provide each startup with opportunities to develop meaningful partnerships with IBM, while gaining operational expertise on product and engineering and go-to-market strategies.
IBM has a long history of providing proven enterprise AI technology and capabilities to organisations around the world. With the IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund, the company aims to grow its ecosystem of AI partnerships and create long-term value for AI companies as well as new and existing clients.
AI’s Potential to Unlock Productivity through Generative AI
AI is projected to unlock nearly $16 trillion in productivity by 2030. The launch of the IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund is another channel to harness the enormous potential of the AI revolution into tangible, positive outcomes for IBM and the companies it invests in. This fund is a part of IBM’s commitment to responsible AI innovation and helping organisations put this transformational technology to work.
IBM’s Commitment to AI Investing
IBM has committed to promoting AI for business through its recent investments in AI technology and companies. For instance, IBM participated in the $235M Series D funding round of Hugging Face, an open-source collaboration platform for the machine learning community. IBM has contributed hundreds of open models and datasets on Hugging Face, including the recent release of the Geospatial Foundation Model in partnership with NASA.
IBM also recently participated in HiddenLayer’s Series A funding to expand its talent base, increase go-to-market efforts, and further invest in its award-winning Machine Learning Security (MLSec) Platform. HiddenLayer is a security provider for AI models and assets, and this funding round marks the largest Series A funding raised by a cybersecurity company focused on protecting AI this year.
IBM’s Strategy for Open Innovation in AI
IBM’s strategy involves leveraging third-party and its own AI models to accelerate open innovation in AI. In September, IBM announced the general availability of the first models in the watsonx Granite model series — a collection of generative AI models to advance the infusion of generative AI into business applications and workflows. IBM also confirmed that the standard contractual intellectual property protections for IBM products will apply to IBM-developed watsonx AI models.
Earlier this year, IBM also announced plans to host Meta’s Llama 2-chat 70 billion parameter model within watsonx, furthering the company’s strategy of leveraging both third-party and its own AI models to maintain open innovation.
IBM is a provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. It helps clients in more than 175 countries capitalise on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge in their industries. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to clients. This is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service.
“AI is slated to unlock nearly $16 trillion in productivity by 2030. With the launch of the IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund, we’re opening another channel to harness the enormous potential of the AI revolution into tangible, positive outcomes for IBM and the companies we invest in,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. “This fund is yet another way we’re doubling down on our commitment to responsible AI innovation through watsonx and helping organizations put this transformational technology to work.”
Hugging Face co-founder and CEO, Clem Delangue said: “We’ve been thrilled to collaborate with IBM in democratizing AI. With hundreds of open models on the Hugging Face hub, they are significantly boosting the open-source ecosystem. This is the reason why we wanted to have them join our series D round. I am convinced that they’ll be able to accelerate their impact on AI with the IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund.”
Chris Sestito, CEO and Co-founder of HiddenLayer said: “IBM’s commitment to progressing secure and responsible AI, access to global clients, and the scale of one of the most innovative companies in the world has made them the perfect partner to support us in driving the next stage of our business growth. Our partnership will help us bring our AI threat detection capabilities to the most cutting-edge companies in the world.”
Summary
IBM has announced the launch of a $500 million venture fund aimed at investing in AI companies to accelerate generative AI technology and research for businesses. The fund will support startups in developing partnerships with IBM, providing them with operational expertise on product engineering and market strategies.
- IBM has announced the launch of a $500 million venture fund to invest in AI companies, with a focus on accelerating generative AI technology and research for businesses.
- The IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund will be led by a dedicated team at IBM with extensive experience in investment and enterprise AI.
- The fund aims to develop partnerships with startups, providing them with opportunities to gain operational expertise on product and engineering and go-to-market strategies.
- IBM’s AI and data platform, watsonx, will play a key role in this initiative.
- Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer at IBM, highlighted the potential of AI to unlock nearly $16 trillion in productivity by 2030.
- IBM has recently invested in AI technology and companies, including participating in the $235M Series D funding round of Hugging Face, an open-source collaboration platform for the machine learning community.
- IBM also participated in HiddenLayer’s Series A funding, a cybersecurity company focused on protecting AI.
- The company’s strategy includes leveraging third-party and its own AI models to accelerate open innovation in AI.
- IBM is the sole investor of the Enterprise AI Venture Fund.
