H Raises $220M, Scale AI Raises $1B
AI Startups look to scale towards AGI
Created on May 22|Last edited on May 22
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A new French artificial intelligence startup named H has successfully raised $220 million in its initial funding round. The investment came from a mix of billionaires, venture capital firms, and major corporations. Notable investors include Bernard Arnault through Aglaé Ventures, Eric Schmidt, Xavier Niel, Yuri Milner, Accel Partners, Amazon, Samsung, and UiPath.
Capitalistic
H, formerly known as Holistic AI, is spearheaded by Charles Kantor, a former computational mathematics student at Stanford, and veteran engineers from Google DeepMind. The startup aims to develop advanced AI models capable of reasoning, planning, and performing complex tasks, aspiring towards "full-AGI."
Agent Focused
The funding will be used to build AI models with broad applications across both business and consumer sectors. The initial team of 25 AI engineers and scientists will focus on creating multi-agent AI systems that can learn from their environment and interact with each other. This approach has predominantly been used in video games but is now being extended to automate various business tasks.
France
France is increasingly becoming a significant hub for AI innovation in Europe. Paris-based Mistral AI, another notable French startup, has raised over $500 million since early 2023 for developing large-language models similar to those from OpenAI and Meta. French venture firms such as Elaia Partners, Motier Ventures, and Bpifrance are also backing H.
Despite entering a crowded market, H differentiates itself with its focus on multi-agent systems and comprehensive business automation capabilities. The company plans to leverage strategic partnerships with investors like UiPath for commercial and computing collaborations.
Scale AI Secures $1 Billion in Series F Funding
San Francisco-based Scale AI has announced a $1 billion Series F funding round, doubling its valuation to $13.8 billion. Led by Accel, the funding round included new investors such as Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, Cisco, Intel, ServiceNow, and AMD. This brings Scale AI's total funding to $1.6 billion.
Focused on Data
Scale AI specializes in data labeling and management for training AI models. It has expanded its services to support a variety of AI applications, including generative AI and large language models. The company recently secured a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to enhance AI capabilities across military branches and launched Donovan, an AI-powered decision-making platform for classified government networks.
Founder and CEO Alexandr Wang emphasized the company’s mission to build a comprehensive data infrastructure for AI, aiming to accelerate the development of frontier data essential for AI progression.
Global Expansion
Scale AI continues to play a pivotal role in AI development both in the U.S. and globally, with plans to open a European headquarters in London to support UK government AI initiatives.
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