The AI Rundown by Lightscape Partners - 07/01/24

Good morning, happy July, and welcome back to another week of The AI Rundown.

Last week in AI:

• Etched secured $120 million to build a transformer-specific chip to run model inference at 10 times the speed and efficiency of an Nvidia Blackwell GPU. Lightscape Partners participated in the round and strongly believe in the team at Etched.

• IBM, Accenture, and McKinsey will attribute large amounts of their business to generative AI this year. Consulting firms are cashing in on the generative AI boom, deploying solutions internationally.

• Humanoid robot Digit by Agility Robotics will be deployed in warehouses for commercial use as more and more businesses look to adopt the technology.

Otherwise, let’s get into it.

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Top AI Stories of the Week

Etched raises $120M to challenge Nvidia with breakthrough transformer-specific AI chips, added to Lightscape’s innovative portfolio. Link.

• Etched, an AI chip startup founded by Harvard dropouts Gavin Uberti and Chris Zhu, has raised $120 million in a Series A funding round to challenge Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip market.

• Their specialized chip, Sohu, is designed exclusively for transformer models, which are integral to modern AI applications like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Gemini.

• The Sohu chip claims to be 10 times faster and more cost-effective than Nvidia's upcoming Blackwell GPUs, offering a significant advantage in efficiency and energy consumption.

• The funding, led by Primary Venture Partners and Positive Sum Ventures, will help Etched bring Sohu to market and establish a foothold in the competitive AI chip industry.

Consulting firms are already benefiting from the AI boom. Link.

• Consulting firms are capitalizing on the generative AI boom, with companies like IBM, Accenture, and McKinsey seeing substantial increases in sales related to AI consulting services.

• IBM has secured over $1 billion in sales commitments, while Accenture booked $300 million in sales last year, and McKinsey expects 40% of its business this year to be tied to generative AI.

• This trend is reminiscent of the dot-com boom, as businesses seek expert guidance on integrating AI technologies like ChatGPT into their operations.

• The demand for AI consulting is driving growth in the industry, helping firms navigate regulatory compliance and develop AI-driven solutions​.

Agility Robotics unveils Digit Humanoid Robots for warehouse tasks. Link.

• Agility Robotics has launched its Digit humanoid robots for commercial use, specifically in warehouses that distribute Spanx products.

• Early adopters such as Amazon and GXO Logistics are testing Digit for tasks like tote recycling and logistics operations.

• This marks a significant advancement in deploying humanoid robots to handle industrial tasks, aiming to improve efficiency and address labor shortages.

LLMs

Google unveils Gemma 2: next-gen open AI models for enhanced performance and efficiency. Link.

• Google has launched Gemma 2, an advanced open AI model available to researchers and developers.

• This new iteration features improved performance and efficiency, with models sized at 9 billion and 27 billion parameters.

• Gemma 2 runs effectively on various hardware, including NVIDIA GPUs and Google Cloud TPUs, and integrates seamlessly with major AI frameworks.

• It aims to offer accessible, high-performance AI tools, promoting responsible AI development through comprehensive safety measures and evaluations.

Enterprise AI Adoption

Morgan Stanley introduces OpenAI-powered assistant to boost wealth advisor productivity. Link.

• Morgan Stanley has launched an OpenAI-powered assistant called AI @ Morgan Stanley Debrief to enhance the productivity of its wealth advisors.

• This new tool leverages OpenAI's GPT-4 technology to automatically generate notes, summaries, and draft communications based on client meetings, significantly reducing the administrative burden on advisors and allowing them to focus more on client interaction and strategy.

• The assistant is part of Morgan Stanley's broader strategy to integrate advanced AI tools into its operations, aiming to improve efficiency and provide better client service.

Venture

Axelera AI secures $50M amidst growing AI chip competition. Link.

• Axelera AI has raised $50 million in Series A funding to advance its energy-efficient Thetis Core AI chip, which delivers up to 48.16 TOPS.

• The funding will accelerate chip production and expand Axelera's workforce and Silicon Valley presence​.

• This investment positions Axelera to compete in the rapidly growing edge AI market, emphasizing cost-effective and power-efficient solutions.

OpenAI delays deploying viral Voice Mode from Demo Day. Link.

• The rollout of ChatGPT's advanced Voice Mode, initially scheduled for late June, has been delayed by one month to ensure improved content detection and a better user experience.

• The alpha launch will start with a small group of users to gather feedback, with plans for all Plus users to have access by fall, contingent on meeting safety and reliability standards.

• Additionally, new video and screen-sharing capabilities are in development, with updates to follow.

AI Data Infrastructure Market Map

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