Element AI Inc. is a fairly new startup to emerge on the scene that provides machine learning development and consulting services to others.
And, at not much more than a year old, it’s already doing some dicey business moves. Just last week, the company announced the creation of a venture capital fund of no less than $45 million to help finance other artificial intelligence (AI), providers.
It wasn’t that long ago that Element AI raised $102 million in investment funding for its own AI projects. At that point, the company disclosed its plans to invest in as many as 50 startups, but now, with the new round of funding that’s a whole load more opportunities to invest in.
Three South Korean conglomerates have teamed up with Element AI in an attempt to accelerate the development of more machine learning startups. Some of the top names among the group are Hyundai Motor Co., SK Telecom Co. Ltd., and an investment firm called Hanwha Asset Management Co. Ltd.
Most of the $45 million (if not all of it) will be provided by the South Korean conglomerates, but Element AI will still continue to help by identifying potential investment opportunities. In particular, the investors would like to see more attention being put on technologies such as drones, household robots, and autonomous vehicles.
The fund is just one of many that have emerged lately in order to support AI, particularly when it comes to machine learning. Not too long ago, the Chinese search giant, Baidu Inc, decided it was going to dedicate a whopping $1.5 billion for investing in autonomous driving technologies. And, even less time ago than that, Google revealed it created a whole new investment arm called Gradient that focuses on funding early-stage AI startups.
Another development in the word of AI comes from that of Andrew Ng, a deep learning pioneer. A pioneer in AI himself, having worked for both Google and Baidu in the past, Ng intends to raise $150 million, also to be invested in AI startups.
As you can see AI is all around us and ts existence will continue to grow over the next few years. With this much investment being pumped into the field, and that many eager developers on tap, before we know it AI will be everywhere we turn.
Source Silicon Angle
