Cisco launches $1bn fund to bolster AI startup ecosystem
The corporate venture investment arm of Cisco has formalised a new AI fund, which has already made more than 20 AI-focused acquisitions and investments.
Everyone wants a piece of the hype-fuelled AI space. Cisco is hardly a latecomer. In fact it has already committed nearly USD 200 million of its USD 1 billion fund to companies such as Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI among others. Cohere provides security-focused frontier large language models (LLMs) and industry-leading Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities. Mistral AI has developed new models of generative artificial intelligence for business. Scale AI provides a data-centric, end-to-end platform providing training and validation for AI applications.
In addition to these investments, Cisco will also be working with AI companies on product collaborations that allow Cisco to co-innovate.
“The establishment of our USD 1 billion AI investment fund is a testament to our commitment to the transformative power of artificial intelligence and its potential to redefine industries globally,” said Derek Idemoto, SVP, Corporate Development and Cisco Investments. “This fund represents our unwavering commitment to AI and innovation, and to the entrepreneurs and visionaries who are defining the next wave of technology.”
Recent research from IDC indicates that the global AI market is expected to double in size to over USD 500 billion in the next three years.
