Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:43 — 21.9MB) | Embed
Subscribe: RSS
The story of the past year or so has been artificial intelligence and, in particular, generative artificial intelligence, or gen AI. Doesn’t matter what sector you’re in, or what countries you look at, everyone is trying to apply gen AI to their business, and investors are seeing a gold mine.
Whether we’re talking about popular large language models like ChatGPT (the launch of which kicked off the big hype around gen AI), or other programmes designed to generate images, or videos, or audio, everyone wants a piece of the pie.
We now have enough data to look back on and see where corporate investors have fallen into the mix. Today I speak to my colleagues, GCV editor Maija Palmer, and GCV’s head of analytics and general data guru Kaloyan Andonov, who have recently co-authored a piece looking at the past year in Gen AI investment, and we’ve seen that we’re seeing that half of all VC dollars invested in the space has come from rounds featuring one or more corporate players.
It’s not just the numbers that stand out, but their context. We’re seeing significant changes in the competitive dynamics in the tech sector – at least in so far as the public markets can indicate. Two of the longest-standing rivalries in tech have been upended – chipmaker Nvidia, which has historically played second fiddle to Intel, has seen a massive surge in its stock price in recent years, overtaking its chief competitor in terms of market cap, while Microsoft has also overtaken Apple – in both cases, the previous leaders fall to second place as massive bets are made on AI.
It’s a time of great change in tech, and the tectonic plates are set to keep moving.