This column is a look back at the week that was in AI. Read the previous one here.
Microsoft recently made waves when it was revealed it would lure two co-founders of generative AI startup Inflection AI away from the company, hire most of its 70-person staff, and license its technology.
The deal — seemingly framed in a way to get around any regulatory hurdles since it is not officially an acquisition — once again showed the tech titan’s insatiable appetite for all things AI.
However, the move was actually just one of several deals the Windows developer and its venture capital arm completed in the past several weeks as it continues investing heavily in the sector.
In late February, Microsoft took part in one of the biggest rounds of the month, investing in AI robotics startup Figure’s huge $675 million round at a pre-money valuation of roughly $2 billion. Other big-name investors in the round included Jeff Bezos’ Explore Investments and Nvidia.
Just a few days later — in a deal that went largely underreported — Microsoft invested about $16 million into Paris-based Mistral AI. The French startup competes with OpenAI — which Microsoft obviously knows well — and Anthropic, and was valued at about $2 billion late last year.
The two AI deals in a month were the most for Microsoft since last May, per Crunchbase data.
Microsoft’s venture arm M12 also joined the AI investing frenzy in recent weeks. In February, the firm took part in rounds for SynthLabs and Guardrails AI — two startups that attempt to ensure companies’ generative AI is reliable, secure doing what it is supposed to do.
Then last month, M12 took part in the big $80 million round for Palo Alto, California-based Foundry, which is developing a public cloud purpose-built for ML workloads.
The last time M12 took part in two rounds for AI startups in one month before February was in November 2022, per Crunchbase data.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft’s deal with Inflection AI grabbed most of the clicks the past few weeks and for good reason — it may have provided a blueprint for big tech to get around antitrust regulations.
However, deals like the Mistral and Foundry rounds continue to show Microsoft’s edacious desire for AI.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
This column is a look back at the week that was in AI. Read the previous one here.
Microsoft recently made waves when it was revealed it would lure two co-founders of generative AI startup Inflection AI away from the company, hire most of its 70-person staff, and license its technology.
The deal — seemingly framed in a way to get around any regulatory hurdles since it is not officially an acquisition — once again showed the tech titan’s insatiable appetite for all things AI.
However, the move was actually just one of several deals the Windows developer and its venture capital arm completed in the past several weeks as it continues investing heavily in the sector.
In late February, Microsoft took part in one of the biggest rounds of the month, investing in AI robotics startup Figure’s huge $675 million round at a pre-money valuation of roughly $2 billion. Other big-name investors in the round included Jeff Bezos’ Explore Investments and Nvidia.
Just a few days later — in a deal that went largely underreported — Microsoft invested about $16 million into Paris-based Mistral AI. The French startup competes with OpenAI — which Microsoft obviously knows well — and Anthropic, and was valued at about $2 billion late last year.
The two AI deals in a month were the most for Microsoft since last May, per Crunchbase data.
Microsoft’s venture arm M12 also joined the AI investing frenzy in recent weeks. In February, the firm took part in rounds for SynthLabs and Guardrails AI — two startups that attempt to ensure companies’ generative AI is reliable, secure doing what it is supposed to do.
Then last month, M12 took part in the big $80 million round for Palo Alto, California-based Foundry, which is developing a public cloud purpose-built for ML workloads.
The last time M12 took part in two rounds for AI startups in one month before February was in November 2022, per Crunchbase data.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft’s deal with Inflection AI grabbed most of the clicks the past few weeks and for good reason — it may have provided a blueprint for big tech to get around antitrust regulations.
However, deals like the Mistral and Foundry rounds continue to show Microsoft’s edacious desire for AI.
Illustration: Dom Guzman