IBM sets up a US $500 million venture capital fund to focus on "accelerating commercial generation AI technology research"

CTOnews.com, November 8, according to the official press release of IBM, IBM announced today that it will invest US $500 million (CTOnews.com Note: about RMB 3.64 billion) to set up an IBM Enterprise AI Venture Fund venture capital fund, which specializes in investing in various AI start-ups, and will focus on "accelerating business-oriented generative AI technology research".

▲ Tuyuan IBMIBM claims that the purpose of the venture capital fund is to invest "now and tomorrow" to "help global enterprises achieve AI business applications". The fund is headed by a "professional team" of investors and AI experts. IBM claims that every AI start-up has the opportunity to establish an "important partnership" with IBM while gaining expertise in technology, engineering and product listing strategies.

CTOnews.com found that IBM has also developed many AI solutions on its own, but most of them focus on the company's Watson platform, while IBM launched the Enterprise AI Venture Fund venture capital fund to expand its own Watson platform ecosystem and create more value for IBM itself and its customers.

Rob Thoma, senior vice president and chief business officer of IBM software, said that AI is expected to release $16 million in productivity by 2030 (currently about 116 million yuan), and the establishment of relevant venture capital funds will give IBM more possibility to "harness the AI revolution", thus bringing win-win results for IBM and related AI start-ups.

Before setting up the AI venture capital fund, IBM also invested in many AI startups, including D-round financing in open source platform Hugging Face and round A financing in AI security company HiddenLayer.