OpenAI and Anthropic raised $5.3bn before ChatGPT. Labs, many without products, just raised $24bn.
New AI research labs raised about $24 billion in the past two quarters, the Financial Times reported on 25 September, citing data from Radical Ventures.
Many still have no product on the market and no revenue.
That is nearly five times the $5.3 billion OpenAI and Anthropic raised together in the seven years before ChatGPT launched.
The FT calls them neolabs: startups built around a team of scientists and a research bet.
A separate tally cited by IBTimes Singapore counts 102 of them. They have raised $70 billion at a combined valuation of $320 billion, with under $1 billion of revenue between them.
Bloomberg counted more than 40 neolab founders from Google and its AI lab DeepMind, more than OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta produced combined. David Silver's Ineffable Intelligence has raised roughly $1 billion.
Some investors remain sceptical. Ashu Garg of Foundation Capital told IBTimes Singapore that most of them "will end up with something that is just incrementally better."
Would you sign a multi-year contract with an AI lab that has no revenue yet?
Image: AI-generated.
Sources
Our file on OpenAI
- 7 Oct
Analysts said Claude subscribers use 42% of Anthropic's computing. They pay 10% of sales.
- 4 Oct
AI chipmaker Cerebras debuted at $95 billion. It is now worth $39 billion.
- 1 Oct
Google's new AI guessed wrong on 15% of questions it couldn't answer. OpenAI's 51%.
- 30 Sept
OpenAI faced Florida's 49-page bid to halt model development without outside safeguards.
- 30 Sept
OpenAI sought $30 billion, valuing it at $1.4 trillion, Bloomberg reported.
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