Inflection AI Raises $1.3 Billion in Funding Round Led by Microsoft and Nvidia
- ByStartupStory | June 30, 2023
California-based startup Inflection AI announced on Thursday that it has successfully raised $1.3 billion in funding from a group of prominent investors, including Microsoft and Nvidia. The investment, which includes a combination of cash and cloud credit, values the one-year-old company at an impressive $4 billion, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Inflection AI, co-founded by Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of Google DeepMind, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, has garnered attention for its focus on developing consumer-facing AI products. The startup is considered a top competitor to OpenAI in the rapidly expanding artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
One of Inflection’s notable recent releases is its chatbot Pi, which utilizes generative AI technology similar to ChatGPT. Pi engages in dialogue with users, allowing them to ask questions, provide feedback, and seek assistance. Inflection aims to create a personalized AI assistant that assists individuals with planning, scheduling, information gathering, and other tasks.
With approximately 35 employees, Inflection AI raised $225 million in its initial funding round in early 2022 from investors such as Greylock, Microsoft, and Reid Hoffman. The startup’s most recent report highlights the performance of its Inflection-1 model, which powers Pi, asserting that it outperforms many other available models.
The majority of the newly secured funding will be allocated to bolstering computing power to develop a more robust foundation model, according to Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Inflection. Suleyman stated at the Collision Conference on Thursday, “We’ll be building a cluster of around 22,000 H100s. This is approximately three times more compute than what was used to train all of GPT4. Speed and scale are what’s going to really enable us to build a differentiated product.”
The AI industry has emerged as the next technological frontier, particularly following the viral success of OpenAI’s bot, ChatGPT, in late 2022. In recent months, numerous investors have shown interest in the AI space as corporations explore ways to integrate the technology into their operations. Meanwhile, regulators have been deliberating on approaches to address the challenges and opportunities presented by AI.
Microsoft, an existing investor and also a backer of rival OpenAI, participated in Inflection’s latest fundraising round. Nvidia, which has intensified its AI investments, as well as Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, also joined the round, as confirmed by Inflection.
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