AI massive shot Andrew Ng’s AI Fund, a startup incubator that backs small groups of consultants trying to clear up key issues utilizing AI, plans to lift upward of $120 million for its second effort.
A submitting with the SEC reveals that the AI Fund’s second fund, AI Enterprise Fund II, has thus far amassed $69.75 million from 13 companions — leaving round $50 million to be invested. The AI Fund’s PR declined to remark.
Ng, the founding father of the Google Mind deep studying mission, co-founder of Coursera, and up to date Amazon board appointee, was one of the vital recognizable names within the AI neighborhood when he grew to become Baidu’s chief scientist in 2014. He left Baidu in 2017 to jumpstart numerous AI ventures, together with the DeepLearning.ai course and Touchdown AI, a startup growing AI instruments focusing on manufacturing firms.
Ng launched the AI Fund in 2018 with $175 million, serving because the incubator’s GP and main its route. (On the aforementioned SEC submitting, he’s named because the “managing member of the overall associate” for AI Enterprise Fund II.) The thought was to offer funding on the seed and Collection A levels of an organization’s life cycle, permitting groups to work in relative stealth till they had been prepared — and connecting them with Ng’s intensive skilled community.
Greylock Companions, New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia Capital and SoftBank Group had been among the many AI Fund’s preliminary backers. Crunchbase lists 38 portfolio firms, together with AI observability platform WhyLabs, Ng’s personal Touchdown AI, and AI app-building instrument Baseten.
At $120 million, AI Enterprise Fund II could be significantly smaller than the primary AI Fund automobile. Nonetheless, it’s greater than double what Ng reportedly initially hoped to lift — $50 million — for the AI Fund’s follow-up.
Take it as one other potential signal that the AI bubble — notably the buzzy generative AI section inside it — could also be deflating.
PitchBook not too long ago reported that, for 2 consecutive quarters, generative AI dealmaking on the earliest levels has declined, plummeting 76% from its Q3 2023 peak. VC deal worth for pre-seed and seed-stage offers fell in Q1 2024 to $122.9 million, down from Q3’s excessive of $517.7 million.
Enterprise reluctance could possibly be guilty.
In a pair of current surveys from Boston Consulting Group, about half of the respondents — all C-suite executives — mentioned that they don’t count on generative AI to result in substantial productiveness positive factors and that they’re fearful in regards to the potential for errors and information compromises arising from generative AI-powered instruments. As my colleague Ron Miller wrote final week, companies are discovering that generative AI is tougher to implement at scale than they as soon as assumed — and that execs are exercising warning.
