AI Funding Frenzy Intensifies – The New York Times

Blooming flowers include Dust, a startup founded by former OpenAI employees. Dust is approaching a $5 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital that will value it at between $30 million and $40 million, two people with knowledge of the situation said. The round was competitive, with condition lists offering ratings up to twice as high, one of the people said.

Perplexity AI, a start-up created by former OpenAI, Google and Meta employees, is raising $20-25 million, led by NEA, which values ​​the company at around $150 million, two people familiar with it have said. folder. And LangChain, a startup working on software that helps other companies integrate AI into their products, has raised funds from Benchmark, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

These follow the $13 billion OpenAI raised from Microsoft, including $10 billion in January and $300 million raised this year by Anthropic, another AI startup.

Dust and LangChain declined to comment. Various aspects of funding rounds were reported earlier by Business Insider, The Information and Newcomer.

At Y Combinator, the startup incubator, at least 50 of the 218 companies in the current program are working on generative AI, according to a tally by Truewind, an AI accounting startup that is part of the program. Alex Lee, CEO of Truewind, said ChatGPT has helped investors, potential customers and potential employees understand the possibilities of technology.

“Before, you would go and say, ‘We’re doing something with AI,’ and it’s hard to imagine exactly what that looks like,” Lee said. “Now they’re like, ‘Oh, I played around with ChaptGPT, and I can imagine how I might use it in my world. “”