Microsoft-backed AI start-up Inflection raises US$1.3 billion from Nvidia and others
- The investment, a mix of cash and cloud credit, valued the one-year-old company at US$4 billion, said a source familiar with the matter
- Most of the funding will be used to build computing power to develop a more powerful foundation model, according to Inflection’s CEO
Inflection AI, a start-up backed by several Silicon Valley heavyweights, said on Thursday it had raised US$1.3 billion from investors including Microsoft and Nvidia, amid a boom in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector.
The investment, a mix of cash and cloud credit, valued the one-year-old company at US$4 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Inflection released its chatbot Pi last month. Founded by Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, it focused on building consumer-faced AI products and is considered a top rival of OpenAI.
Pi uses generative AI technology, similar to ChatGPT, to interact with users through dialogues, allowing people to ask questions and share feedback. Inflection said it wants to build a personal AI that will help people plan, schedule, gather information and perform other tasks.
Palo Alto, California-based Inflection AI has about 35 employees. It raised US$225 million in a first round of funding in early 2022 from Greylock, Microsoft and Reid Hoffman.
Last week, it released a report on its model Inflection-1, which powers Pi, and claims it has outperformed most models available.
Most of the funding will be used to build computing power to develop a more powerful foundation model, according to Suleyman, chief executive at Inflection.
