Artificial Intelligence and Recent Billion Dollar Investments 2019
A list of investments made and commitments to invest in AI
The investment landscape sure is getting crowded. Writing about the billion dollar investment by Microsoft in OpenAI I realised there may be more investments of this scale occurring in different places around the world or otherwise further billion dollar commitments to invest in artificial intelligence (AI), so I wanted to explore further. The date of the different investments go by the date of the article found, and it will be linked in each case.
I may decide to go back and update this list sporadically, and it is of course not complete, however it may map a few investments or commitments to invest.
$1 Billion Investment in OpenAI by Microsoft (22nd of July 2019)
Open AI had a recent investment by Microsoft of $1 billion. This was argued to be largely in Azure Cloud credits and infrastructure and supposed to roll over a longer period of time to ensure their development efforts. It will however also according to Microsoft focus on: “…focus on building a platform that OpenAI will use to create new AI technologies and deliver on the promise of artificial general intelligence”
SoftBank announces AI-focused second $108 billion Vision Fund with LPs including Microsoft, Apple and Foxconn (25th of July 2019)
The Vision Fund 2 will focus on AI-based technology. SoftBank Group’s own investment in the fund will be $38 billion. According to the article in TechCrunch: “The maiden Vision Fund, which was announced in October 2016 and began investing in early 2017, has earned 62% returns to date, SoftBank said last month. SoftBank, known for consistently cutting checks of $100 million and larger, has invested in 24 of 377 unicorns globally (companies with valuation of $1 billion or more), according to research firm CB Insights.”
SAS to invest $1 billion in artificial intelligence over 3 years (18th of March)
SAS has been expanding its efforts to develop artificial intelligence, the privately held software company announced in March that it will invest $1 billion in AI research and development over the next three years. SAS annually invests some 25 percent of its overall revenue in R&D. As part of the investment, SAS will launch a Global Education Center deploying AI at its headquarters building in Cary.
MIT Schwarzman College of Computing $1.1 billion commitment by MIT to open in September 2019 (retrieved 7th of August 2019)
$1.1 billion commitment by MIT, enabled by a $350 million gift from Stephen Schwarzman, chairman, CEO, and co-founder of global asset manager Blackstone. Mr. Schwarzman focuses on providing transformative solutions to global-scale problems. Scheduled to begin operations in September 2019 and to complete construction of a new building on the MIT campus in 2022. The initial commitment was made in 2018, however I chose to include it due to the opening in September 2019.
Russia Raises $2 billion for Investment in Artificial Intelligence (31st of May, 2019)
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) raised $2 billion from foreign investors in May to support its domestic companies developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. The funds for AI development were raised from “partners from large sovereign funds and global corporations from the Middle East and Asia,” RDIF representatives told Vedomosti. The RDIF manages $10 billion of its own funds and $40 billion of co-investments.
One of Sweden’s richest families is investing its billions into artificial intelligence (11th of July 2019)
On the 11th of July 2019 the Wallenberg family became one of the foremost investors of artificial intelligence in Europe, investing around €300m in its AI program called WASP, in a mixture of AI startups and a business transformation company called Combient, bringing together Nordic companies to work together on AI. As mention size was smaller yet the commitment is to make a larger investment, which is why I included this case in the article.
IBM Invests $2 Billion in New York Research Hub for AI (7th of February 2019)
IBM decided to invest $2 billion into their new artificial intelligence research hub in New York as part of their efforts to boost growth from emerging technologies. The AI Hardware Center at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute campus in Albany, New York, will focus on computer-chip research, development, prototyping, testing and simulation.
VW invests $2.6 billion in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance (12th of July 2019)
Argo AI is a Pittsburgh-based autonomous vehicle startup that scene two received $1 billion in backing from Ford in 2017. VW has committed $1 billion in capital to the startup and also will purchase Argo AI shares from Ford for $500 million over three years. Ford will invest the remaining $600 million of its previously announced $1 billion cash commitment in Argo AI.
Medtronic Announces Pricing of €5 Billion of Senior Notes (25th of June 2019)
Medtronic claims to reclaim time on the medical-surgical floors with smarter technologies that can save you time — helping you manage priorities, reduce stress, and increase patient safety and satisfaction. They raised the top end of a debt tender to more than $4 billion, covering the outlay with a €5 billion senior notes offering.
SenseTime Plans to Raise $2 Billion This Year (9th of January 2019)
SenseTime Group Ltd (商汤科技), is the world’s most valuable artificial intelligence unicorn, focused on computer vision and deep learning is preparing for a fresh round of financing. According to Bloomberg, people familiar with the matter revealed that the Chinese company’s goal is to raise about USD 2 billion this year. Now, it is in contact with its consultants on financing matters. Investors behind SenseTime include Chinese giants like Alibaba Group (阿里巴巴). SenseTime responded to the message with “No comment”.
Not a Billion Reflections
I tend to state the obvious, but there is a lot of money being invested into AI. This is becoming clear from the last few years, and there are far more investments I was unable to cover. What does this mean for society? Certainly high expectations and a lot of pressure on developers and other staff members to deliver results. With this rapid increase in investment and possible return on investment we can of course ask: how will we ensure ethical AI? Can this cause issue for AI safety?
This is day 66 of #500daysofAI, however I will likely come back to this specific article. My current focus for day 50–100 is on AI Safety. If you enjoy this please give me a response as I do want to improve my writing or discover new research, companies and projects.
