M13’s Post

Sure, here's a more concise version: --- 📊 **The Future of AI: Acquihires on the Rise** Business Insider’s Rebecca Torrence and Riddhi Kanetkar predict a wave of “acquihires” in the AI industry, mapping out potential buyers and sellers. With 55 AI startup exits in Q1, per Crunchbase, M&A activity is booming. Companies are aggressively acquiring AI talent to integrate cutting-edge capabilities. Although Microsoft Google and Meta account for the vast majority, others like Snowflake are also leading the charge. This trend presents exciting opportunities for digital media and adtech sectors, emphasizing the premium on AI expertise. But, it won’t be long before less savvy broadcasters, publishers and agencies take a crack at acquiring an AI company. Just don’t be surprised if they don’t amount to much post sale. What digital media or agency company do you think would first jump at an AI acquisition? #AI #MergersAndAcquisitions #DigitalMedia #AdTech #TechTalent https://lnkd.in/euUpWhNe

It doesn't have the same ring coming from AI Jerry Maguire. The honeymoon is over, and AI has already reached the "show me the money" phase, which isn't pretty as startups struggle to generate revenue. Everything that says 'AI' is no longer gold proving once again that hype isn't the same as actual success. Like the early dotcom and ecommerce days, tech companies jumped onto the bandwagon adding 'AI' to their names or sprinkling the golden letters throughout marketing materials. The tech community euphoria and the all-too-common over-exuberance by venture capitalists is coming back to Earth as Big Tech dominates and cuts the runway for startups that have barely had time to outgrow their diapers. From Inflection AI to Stability AI (this is beginning to feel like a drinking game), companies with lofty multi-billion dollar valuations are on the edge of either pivoting or don't-forget-to-turn-out-the-lights on the way out. Just last year, many of these companies were hotter than the planet's temperature. But like previous 'next big things', signing up customers and generating revenue still matter (new math, old math...it's the same). The other major factor involves behemoths like Google and Microsoft, who are barreling through and over anything in their paths faster than anything you'd see at a monster truck rally. If you're an AI startup, your chance of success or having the necessary runway to get there would improve immensely by partnering with them. Despite what today's gurus say about how things are different this time (they say that every time, don't they?), the harsh and bitter reality is we've been through this before. 'AI' may help garner excitement and attention from VCs and novices at cocktail parties, but it's the boring stuff like strategy and an actual revenue-generating business model that instills longevity. AI is the future, but you have to survive long enough to get there https://lnkd.in/gSjqYVrG #generativeai #startups #bigtech #google #microsoft #openai #artificialintelligence #technology #venturecapital #culture #business

I’ll keep repeating it until people listen. Ai is seasoning. Generative Ai is salt. You still have to have something to eat. If you’re not driving business value with Ai as a tool, you will fail with Ai. It should be improving things, not be the thing. As I transition into full time advisory, the first question I ask prospective clients concerning Ai is, how’s your data? If they don’t know the answer, we shouldn’t be talking about Ai yet.

Big Tech is swallowing the AI industry. We've all noticed it. 1️⃣ Top researchers joining the big guys after founding or leading an AI startup. 2️⃣ Massive acquisitions by the big guys of new startups 3️⃣ Astronomical investments in startups and then duplication of the work It shouldn't be surprising. AI requires massive resources to build and maintain and very few companies have the runway to finance this while the market continues to emerge. What this means is for new players they have to start looking at ways to build solutions that are more cost effective or take a different approach. As the AI hype starts to wind down and the real level of the tech is accepted and started to be used for practical purposes (no more chatbots!!) we will see a new batch of AI based startups that hopefully will grow to the next set of Big Tech companies. #ai #startup #hype https://lnkd.in/ga4zJMs2

Big Tech is swallowing the AI industry. We've all noticed it. 1️⃣ Top researchers joining the big guys after founding or leading an AI startup. 2️⃣ Massive acquisitions by the big guys of new startups 3️⃣ Astronomical investments in startups and then duplication of the work It shouldn't be surprising. AI requires massive resources to build and maintain and very few companies have the runway to finance this while the market continues to emerge. What this means is for new players they have to start looking at ways to build solutions that are more cost effective or take a different approach. As the AI hype starts to wind down and the real level of the tech is accepted and started to be used for practical purposes (no more chatbots!!) we will see a new batch of AI based startups that hopefully will grow to the next set of Big Tech companies. #ai #startup #hype

In a remarkable achievement, Perplexity AI, the AI-powered search startup, has officially reached unicorn status with a valuation of approximately $1 billion. The company, co-founded by IIT Madras alumnus Aravind Srinivas has raised $63 million in a funding round led by notable investors such as Daniel Gross, former head of AI at Y Combinator, and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. — Disrupting the Search Landscape Perplexity AI is revolutionizing the search industry with its innovative generative AI platform. By offering a chatbot-style interface, the company enables users to pose natural language questions and receive intuitive, conversational answers backed by verifiable citations and multimedia content. This approach aims to disrupt the traditional search methods dominated by tech giants like Google. — Expanding Enterprise Solutions In addition to its consumer-facing platform, Perplexity AI has launched an Enterprise Pro version to cater to the security and privacy needs of businesses. Priced at $40 per month, this service includes features such as enhanced data protection, team management, and the ability to delete queries after seven days. The company has already integrated this solution with leading enterprises, including Zoom Video Communications and HP Inc. — Fueling Global Growth With the new funding, Perplexity AI is poised to accelerate its global expansion. The company has already established partnerships with major telecom firms like SoftBank in Japan and Deutsche Telekom in Germany, significantly broadening its potential user base. — The Road Ahead This unicorn milestone is a testament to Perplexity AI's innovative approach and the hard work of its talented team. As the company continues to push the boundaries of AI-driven search, it is well-positioned to disrupt the industry and provide users with a more intuitive and engaging search experience. #PerplexityAI #Unicorn #AISearch #TechStartup #Innovation #IndianCommunity

Interesting read from The New York Times to think about with your morning coffee. Jim Breyer from Breyer Capital stated over a year ago that valuations of AI startups were getting "frothy" during a CNBC interview at Davos. Call it the end of the beginning of the A.I. boom. Since mid-March, the financial pressure on several signature artificial intelligence start-ups has taken a toll. Inflection AI, which raised $1.5 billion but made almost no money, has folded its original business. Stability AI has laid off employees and parted ways with its chief executive. And Anthropic has raced to close the roughly $1.8 billion gap between its modest sales and enormous expenses. The A.I. revolution, it is becoming clear in Silicon Valley, is going to come with a very big price tag. And the tech companies that have bet their futures on it are scrambling to figure out how to close the gap between those expenses and the profits they hope to make somewhere down the line. This problem is particularly acute for a group of high-profile start-ups that have raised tens of billions of dollars for the development of generative A.I., the technology behind chatbots such as ChatGPT. Some of them are already figuring out that competing head-on with giants like Google, Microsoft and Meta is going to take billions of dollars — and even that may not be enough. “You can already see the writing on the wall,” said Ali Ghodsi, chief executive of Databricks, a data warehouse and analysis company that works with A.I. start-ups. “It doesn’t matter how cool it is what you do — does it have business viability?” #ai #startups #venturecapital #coffeethoughts

Whatever he says lah! First of all, I don't disagree that one can't beat centralised AI with more centralised AI. But I honestly doubt he willingly stepped down (something he is trying to imply by saying it was "his decision to step down". If a startup burns about $8 million a MONTH and its CEO is amused that other AI startups focus too much on revenue, then you can be sure that the company IS in deep troubles. And that is what I think: Stability AI is in trouble. Especially after Google launches its Gemini AI and X open sources its Grok. Basically, Stability AI can't beat Google Gemini or X Grok, just like one can't beat centralised AI with more centralised AI! When you burn too much money and are too slow to alter your course, then you are at the mercy of your bigger and better known competitors. It is true for startup. It is also true for big companies. It is in fact true for all companies. More AI companies are going to fall. #artificialintelligence #ai #business #ceoinsights #technologynews #startups #innovations https://lnkd.in/gTBNYEif

Huge congratulations to Scale AI for raising $1 billion in Series F funding, putting the company’s new valuation at $13.8 billion! As the data foundry for AI, Scale powers the data behind the end-to-end AI lifecycle, ensuring model builders and enterprises alike have the data they need to deploy AI confidently. This new funding will help accelerate the abundance of frontier data that will pave the road to Artificial General Intelligence. “Nearly every major large language model is built on top of our data foundry, so for us this is really a milestone…I think the entire industry expects that AI is only going to grow, the models are only gonna get bigger, the algorithms are only going to get more complex and, therefore, the requirements on data will continue growing…” - founder & CEO, Alexandr Wang Check out more in Fortune’s exclusive:

🚀 Navigating the Shift: As the AI investment frenzy cools, success in 2023 means digging deep for unique competitive edges. 💡 From leveraging proprietary data to solving holistic business challenges, find out how startups are building moats in the age of AI maturation. Dive into the insights from Adi Gozes of Entrée Capital and stay ahead in the evolving landscape. #AIInnovation #StartupStrategy #CompetitiveAdvantage" https://ow.ly/v9Su50QKLfl