Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a major investment of $230 million to help startups around the world develop generative AI applications. The investment is designed to provide early-stage companies with AWS credits, mentorship, and educational resources to accelerate the adoption of AI and machine learning technologies.
The majority of this investment will go towards the second batch of the AWS Generative AI Accelerator. The program provides hands-on expertise and up to $1 million in credits to the top 80 early-stage startups using generative AI to tackle complex challenges. Interested startups can apply until July 19th.
Matt Wood, vice president of artificial intelligence products at AWS, highlighted the company’s longstanding support of startups, noting that 96% of AI/ML unicorns currently run on AWS, highlighting the platform’s role in driving innovation in the space.
AWS credits provided through this initiative can be used to access a range of AWS technologies, including compute, storage, and database services. Startups will also have access to AWS Trainium and Inferentia2, energy-efficient AI chips designed to deliver high performance at low cost. Additionally, the credits also include access to Amazon SageMaker for building and training models, and Amazon Bedrock for developing generative AI applications.
AWS Generative AI Accelerator focuses on startups operating in various sectors, including financial services, healthcare, media and entertainment, business, and climate change. Participants will benefit from a 10-week program featuring sessions on ML performance enhancements, stack optimization, and go-to-market strategies. The program matches startups with both business and technical mentors based on their industry vertical.
As the accelerator’s presenting partner, NVIDIA will provide additional support through access to industry experts, technologies and technical sessions. Participating startups will also be invited to join the NVIDIA Inception program, designed to incubate cutting-edge startups.
The second batch of startups selected will be announced on September 10, and the program will launch at Amazon’s Seattle campus on October 1. All 80 participating startups will have the opportunity to present their solutions to potential investors, customers, partners, and AWS leaders at re:Invent 2024 in Las Vegas.
Jachin Bhasme, co-founder and COO of Leonardo.AI, a participant in the first cohort, shared his positive experience with the accelerator. He said that AWS infrastructure reduced inference costs by 60% and improved inference speed for language models by up to 35%. Bhasme also highlighted the valuable business and technical mentorship he received during the program.
Another attendee, Nima Alidoust, CEO and co-founder of Vevo Therapeutics, praised AWS’ combination of technology, partner network, and potential customers in the life sciences space, emphasizing that the accelerator program provided a valuable opportunity to leverage AWS infrastructure and expertise in scaling model training and development.
“This initiative demonstrates AWS’ commitment to spur innovation in generative AI and help startups build, launch, and scale their businesses. As the field of AI continues to rapidly evolve, programs like the AWS Generative AI Accelerator will play a critical role in incubating the next generation of breakthrough technologies and applications.”
sauce
