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Amazon Web Services has announced it’s giving away $230 million-worth of services and support to generative AI startups.
A significant chunk of the funding will go towards setting up the second round of its AWS Generative AI Accelerator, according to the company.
The accelerator lasts for ten weeks and provides early-stage startups with support and mentorship from AWS and its partners, including Nvidia and Meta, as well as up to $1 million worth of credits that can be used towards AWS services.
The accelerator is aimed at “AI first” startups who have yet to achieve Series A funding, but have either a minimum viable product or have already launched a product. Applications for the accelerator are open until 19 July, and the accelerator will run between October and December. Eighty startups will be accepted onto the second round of program, according to AWS.
The accelerator’s first cohort, which ran last summer, included 21 companies from industries including finance, pharmaceuticals and entertainment, alongside companies focusing on AI ethics and privacy.
Another part of the $230 million funding for generative AI startups, announced earlier this month, will go towards providing startups with “AWS credits, mentorship, and education to further their use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies”, AWS said.
The credits can be used towards the costs of AWS services including computing, storage and databases. The credits will also work for AI-focused technologies, including Amazon SageMaker, which is used for training foundational models; generative AI builder Amazon Bedrock; and instances of its AI chips AWS Trainium and Inferentia2.
Access to the credits appears to be available through AWS’ Activate program, where pre-Series A companies can apply for up to $100,000 each to use on the company’s services.
AWS has founded a number of initiatives to encourage companies looking to build out their generative AI offerings to do so on AWS services. Last year, the company announced the Generative AI Innovation Center, a $100m program designed to encourage companies to use its services in developing generative AI applications.
Under the program, AWS offers training and access to its AI staffers to help businesses build their own generative AI offerings. Companies including Lonely Planet and Ryanair had signed up to the program at launch.
Late last year, AWS also announced a generative AI ‘scholarship’, which gave 50,000 students access to a generative AI course.
According to Bloomberg Intelligence, the generative AI market is set to enjoy a compound annual growth rate of over 40% in the coming years. The researchers predict that the generative AI market, worth $40 billion in 2022, will reach $1.3 trillion by 2032 when it will account for 10% of IT and gaming spending.
