Open Source AI Startups Making Waves
Following Sam Altman’s departure from OpenAI, various technology companies like Salesforce, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have diverted their investments to alternative open-source AI startups. Two such companies benefiting from this shift are Hugging Face and Mistral AI.
Hugging Face, a New York-based company, obtained a $235 million venture deal and subsequently reached a valuation of $4.5 billion. Multiple tech investors, including Qualcomm, IBM, Google, Nvidia, Intel, and Sequoia Capital, have collectively invested over $400 million in the French-American open-source tech firm.
“AI builders are growing superfast, raising and burning money. We are not in that mindset. We’ve been around for seven years and didn’t need to raise money. We can make plans for the long run without a problem.”
On the other hand, Alphabet-linked Mistral AI has raised $113 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners and is aiming to secure an additional $400 million at a $1 billion valuation. Poolside AI, another open-source rival, secured $126 million, jointly led by French telecom and internet billionaire Xavier Niel and U.S. VC firm Felicis Ventures.
Reshuffle in OpenAI Leadership
All these open-source AI platforms are gaining traction following the recent OpenAI saga. Despite the return of Sam Altman as the CEO of OpenAI, the market has been shaken, causing many to reconsider their reliance on a single generative AI service provider. However, viable rivals like Mistral AI and Hugging Face are likely to gain more traction moving forward.
Hot Take
The recent leadership saga at OpenAI may be the publicity that other existing Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology companies need to boost their adoption and sales.
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