STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Cisco (NASDAQ:) on Tuesday launched a $1 billion fund to invest in artificial intelligence startups, joining a list of big tech companies rushing to take stakes in smaller artificial intelligence firms.
The company, through its investment arm, invests in Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI, among others, and has already committed nearly $200 million to the fund, it said.
Artificial intelligence data startup Scale AI is valued at nearly $14 billion, while so-called core model developers Cohere and Mistral are reportedly in talks with investors to raise funds worth $5 billion each.
Foundation AI models are created using huge amounts of data and can be used in a wide variety of use cases.
After Microsoft-backed OpenAI started the AI frenzy in 2022 with the launch of ChatGPT, several tech companies like Meta (NASDAQ:) and Amazon (NASDAQ:) have also invested in various AI startups.
Over the past few years, Cisco has made more than 20 acquisitions and investments focused on artificial intelligence, advancing the development of generative artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as the integration of artificial intelligence across its portfolio, the company said in a statement.