Research by Big Data Company Lucidworks Reveals 93% of Companies Plan to Increase AI Investment


SoftBank plans to invest an additional $22.5B in OpenAI, completing a $30B total investment, contingent on OpenAI's restructuring for IPO. Unconfirmed; funds will support a $41B financing plan announced in April.....
Japanese tech group SoftBank recently released its financial report, revealing a massive $2.4 billion loss over the past period. This loss primarily stemmed from poor performance of its Vision Fund investment portfolio. Despite facing challenges, SoftBank indicated its intention to make substantial investments in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), reflecting confidence in future technological trends. The latest financial report highlighted significant impairment of the Vision Fund's value, with many investment projects not meeting expectations. This situation has placed substantial financial pressure on SoftBank, as well as spurring market concerns.
According to Bloomberg, developer tool company StackBlitz Inc. is in discussions with investors and plans to raise funds at a valuation of $700 million. The company's CEO Eric Simons stated that the deal will be led by Emergence Capital and GV (formerly Google Ventures), with StackBlitz expecting to raise $83.5 million. The funding will also involve Madrona Venture Group, Con.
Microsoft recently announced that it will invest $3 billion in India to further expand its artificial intelligence and Azure cloud services. This plan aims to leverage the market potential of India, the world's most populous country, to drive the company's revenue growth. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated at an event in Bangalore that the company has been operating in India for over 20 years and will continue to increase its investments locally. Nadella emphasized that this investment is not only for infrastructure improvement but will also include providing services for 10 million people.
In 2024, NVIDIA significantly increased its efforts in venture capital, investing as much as $1 billion across 50 different funding rounds and several corporate acquisitions. This figure marks a substantial rise from $872 million and 39 funding rounds in 2023. After profiting $9 billion from AI chip sales, NVIDIA is concentrating resources on 'core AI' companies that require substantial computing power, many of which are also NVIDIA's clients. The investment list for 2024 includes some well-known companies.