Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a substantial $230 million investment aimed at accelerating the development of generative AI applications among global startups. This initiative will provide startups, especially early-stage companies with AWS credits, mentorship, and education to enhance their AI and machine learning capabilities.
A significant portion of this commitment will fund the second cohort of the AWS Generative AI Accelerator, which offers hands-on expertise and up to $1 million in credits to 80 top early-stage startups leveraging generative AI for complex challenges.
The AWS Generative AI Accelerator program is designed to support startups across various sectors, including financial services, healthcare, media, and climate change. Participants would benefit from sessions focused on machine learning performance, stack optimization, and go-to-market strategies, receiving guidance from both business and technical mentors. Each startup will receive up to $1 million in AWS credits, allowing them to build, train, test, and deploy their AI solutions.
The AWS program also provides access to industry experts and technology sessions from NVIDIA, the program’s presenting partner. Participants will be invited to join the NVIDIA Inception program, which supports cutting-edge startups. The selected startups for the second cohort will be announced on September 10, with the program starting on October 1 at Amazon’s Seattle campus. The 10-week accelerator will culminate in December at re:Invent 2024 in Las Vegas, where startups will showcase their solutions to investors, customers, partners, and AWS leaders.
‘Support Instrumental for Previous Participants’
AWS’s support has been instrumental for previous participants, according to AWS. For instance, Leonardo.AI, a suite of generative AI tools for creators, reported significantly reduced inferencing costs while improving language model speeds through the AWS infrastructure. Vevo Therapeutics, an AI-driven biotech startup, leveraged AWS’s technology and network to advance its drug discovery models.
AWS’s commitment would underscore its ongoing role in supporting startups through technological innovation. As Matt Wood, AWS’s Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Products, noted, AWS aims to help startups launch and scale world-class businesses by providing the necessary building blocks to develop impactful AI applications. This program demonstrates AWS‘s strategic commitment to promoting innovation and technical growth globally, in addition to providing support to the expanding AI industry.
