Dive Brief:
- Intel is investing $1 billion in artificial intelligence, dispersing the funds to several startups including Mighty AI, Data Robot and Lumiata, according to a company statement. Intel already has its Intel Nervana AI portfolio, which offers various AI-based management for workloads.
- In addition to outside AI investments, the company announced the Intel Nervana DevCloud, a cloud-based software and hardware platform for industry providers to explore AI innovations without the initial investment burdens of costly compute resources.
- Salesforce is also pushing AI investment, giving $50 million to AI startups, reports Reuters. The company launched Einstein, its own AI technology, last year and is expanding its AI applications throughout its existing enterprise software.
Dive Insight:
AI revenues are expected to skyrocket 487% in less than five years' time, so companies like Intel and Salesforce are looking to expand their portfolios to better suit customers' growing AI demands.
As AI solidifies its presence across technologies and businesses, major tech companies are trying to grow their market shares. At the same time, the technology industry is collaborating to drive the growth and maturity of the advanced computing technology.
In March, for example, Salesforce and IBM announced a partnership grounded in AI through Einstein and Watson to streamline customer engagement across businesses.
Partnerships are not uncommon in AI development and are even encouraged among the world's top tech companies. Last year, the Partnership on AI was formed by likes of Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft, with Apple joining the alliance in January. The alliance is a push for unity over competition in AI development because of the vast data each company possesses.
