糖心视频

This column is a look back at the week that was in AI. Read the previous one here.

Although there continues to be a lot of talk about investors pulling back in the AI market, the big news of the week thus far has been the massive $487 million investment received at a reported valuation of $2 billion.

The round also reminded us of who is investing 鈥� big corporates.

While 鈥� which is expected to invest more than $200 million 鈥� did lead the round, both and 1聽agreed to contribute about $130 million in convertible debt to the deal.

Chip giant Nvidia has made 18 different deals into AI and AI-related startups this year per Crunchbase . That includes 16 deals that were $100 million or more 鈥� such as rounds for , and .

Salesforce鈥檚 venture arm 鈥� 鈥� has taken part in a baker鈥檚 dozen of deals, per Crunchbase . Those deals include 鈥檚 $450 million Series C and 鈥檚 $270 million round in May.

Of course, those are not the only two big tech giants pouring money into the space. has invested in eight startups related to the AI space, according to Crunchbase . Its $10 billion deal with is the biggest round of the year in any sector.

made big headlines last week with its of Gemini AI, but it鈥檚 been making headlines all year with its investment deals in AI startups.

The Mountain View, California-based search and cloud giant has made 16 deals in the AI space involving VC-backed startups, according to Crunchbase . That includes a handful of big rounds for Anthropic (which totaled more than $1.2 billion in funding) and a $235 million round for open source AI startup .

One of Google’s venture arms 鈥� 鈥� itself has made another 13 deals in the space, per Crunchbase .

Of course it isn鈥檛 unusual for large strategics to invest in young startups, keeping an eye on innovation and, of course, competition. This is especially true in AI, where startups need expensive computing power, data, talent and other resources in order to be successful 鈥� all things big tech can supply.

However, it also was just last week when broke that the is looking at Microsoft鈥檚 investment in OpenAI and whether it may violate antitrust laws.

While clearly the vast majority of these deals will not be combed through by regulators, it is interesting to note some are looking at big tech鈥檚 role in nurturing AI technology 鈥� in which they all have invested very heavily.

Things that caught our eye and other stuff:

• Speaking of big corporate backing. announced this week it had raised $56.5 million in new funding led by . However, it also included participation from , Google, Nvidia and others. The company is attempting to use AI to automate monotonous corporate tasks. The company is calling its technology the 鈥淓nterprise Brain.鈥�
• When invests in an AI startup, it鈥檚 hard not to take notice. Vancouver-based raised a $14 Million in Series A led by , with 鈥檚 VC firm participating among others. The company is an AI-powered website builder and small business platform. While we typically associate AI with large enterprises, it is interesting to see a startup bringing it downstream.
• Finally, San Francisco-based raised $10 million in a seed round from , and . What makes the round interesting is that the startup is developing a machine-learning platform that allows AI developers to fetch fresh data quickly, going head-to-head with one of the most valuable private companies in the world, .

Related Crunchbase Pro queries:

Related reading:

• Microsoft Agrees To Multibillion-Dollar Deal With OpenAI
• AI Craze Hits New Level As Anthropic Locks Up $450M, Builder.ai Closes $250M Round
• Hugging Face Hits $4B Valuation After Salesforce Ventures-Led Round 鈥� Report
• Nvidia鈥檚 Been Busy 鈥� Real Busy
• OpenAI Competitor Mistral AI Nabs $487M Round, Hitting $2B Valuation

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