Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), recently announced a $230 million commitment for startups around the world to accelerate the creation of generative AI applications. This will offer startups especially early-stage companies, with AWS credits, mentorship, and education to further their use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies.
According to Industry sources, part of the latest commitment will fund the second cohort of the AWS Generative AI Accelerator, a program that offers hands-on expertise and up to $1 million in credits to each of the top 80 early-stage startups that are leveraging generative AI to solve complex challenges.
Industry sources added that applications for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator open today and will be accepted until July 19. Startups can apply here.
Matt Wood, vice president, Artificial Intelligence Products at AWS stated “For more than 18 years, AWS has helped more startups to build, launch, and scale their business than any other cloud provider—it’s no coincidence that 96% of all AI/ML unicorns run on AWS. With this new effort, we will help startups launch and scale world-class businesses, providing the building blocks they need to unleash new AI applications that will impact all facets of how the world learns, connects, and does business.”
Industry sources further added that Interested startups can learn more about how to access these funds here. Startups can use AWS credits to access AWS compute, storage, and database technologies, as well as AWS Trainium and AWS Inferentia2, energy-efficient AI chips that offer high performance at the lowest cost. These credits can also be used on Amazon SageMaker, a fully managed service that helps companies build and train their FMs, as well as access models and tools to easily and securely build generative AI applications through Amazon Bedrock.
AWS Generative AI Accelerator continues to launch successful startups
The AWS Generative AI Accelerator identifies top early-stage startups utilizing generative AI to solve complex challenges in areas such as financial services, healthcare and life sciences, media and entertainment, business, and climate change, among others. Participants will access sessions on ML performance enhancement, stack optimization, and go-to-market strategies.
Industry sources also added that this 10-week program will match participants with both business and technical mentors based on industry vertical. Startups will receive up to $1 million each in AWS credits to help them build, train, test, and launch their generative AI solutions. They will also have access to industry experts, technology, and technical sessions from NVIDIA, the program’s presenting partner, and be invited to join the NVIDIA Inception program, designed to nurture cutting-edge startups.
