AWS Announces $230 Million for Generative AI Startups

Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS)  announced a US$230 million commitment to generative AI startups, and the expansion of the global Generative AI Accelerator, which is aimed at helping 80 founders and innovators (including 20 from Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ)) to turbocharge their growth with both technical and business programming tailored to startups in this space. Applications for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator open today and will be accepted until July 19.

Over the course of the 10-week global program, which will kick off on October 1, founders of selected generative AI startups will have access to the following:

• Sessions focused on developing skills related to machine learning, stack optimization, and go-to-market strategies.
• An opportunity to receive up to USD $1 million in AWS credits to take advantage of AWS’s compute, storage, and databases, and the best price-performance ML accelerators AWS Trainium and AWS Inferentia2, among other AWS services
• Business and technical mentorship within founders’ industries
• Networking opportunities with industry experts

Today AWS also announced the launch of the new AWS Generative AI Spotlight program in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), a four-week accelerator program to nurture pre-seed and seed-stage ready startups in the region who are building generative AI applications. The program will help selected startups to accelerate their understanding of and fluency with generative AI tools and services from AWS, by providing them access to business and technical knowledge and expertise from industry experts, founders, and investors, and as well as peer support from a community of innovators of fellow cohort members from across the region. The cohort participants will also have access to the AWS startup flagship AWS Activate program and receive up to US$100,000 in AWS Credits, subject to Accelerator T&C and AWS discretion.

The AWS Generative AI Spotlight program in APJ is in collaboration with venture capital firms and organizations in key cities across the region. In India, AWS is collaborating with venture capital firm Accel for the program. Last year, AWS collaborated with Accel to launch ML Elevate 2023, a six weeks long accelerator program that supported 35 generative AI startups in India.

The AWS Generative AI Spotlight program in APJ will select up to 120 pre-seed and seed-stage ready startups across the region, including 40 from India. Interested startups can find more details and apply for the program here.

“For 18 years, AWS has helped more startups build, launch, and scale than any other cloud provider – it’s no coincidence that 96% of all AI/ML unicorns run on AWS. The AWS global Generative AI Accelerator, together with the AWS Spotlight program in APJ, are part of AWS’s continued commitment to helping startups in the region, to accelerate this wave of AI innovation,” said Matt Taylor, Head of Startups Solutions Architecture, APJ at AWS. “These two complementary accelerator programs will help startups at various stages of growth in the APJ region to drive innovations on our generative AI stack. From the best price-performance AWS-designed ML chips, to training or fine-tuning foundational models, and building AI applications, we’re looking forward to enabling startups to transform customer experiences and the way we live, work, and play.”

“Generative AI offers businesses immense potential to accelerate innovation, revolutionize industries, and drive economic growth,” said Amitabh Nagpal, Head of Startup Ecosystem, AWS India. “Tailored to the lifecycle of early-stage generative AI startups, the two distinct, complementary programs- AWS global generative AI accelerator, and APJ Generative AI Spotlight, are designed to offer selected startups access to various resources such as AWS credits, tools, and expertise, to accelerate their journey. We invite eligible startups in India to apply for the programs, and look forward to empowering startups that are driving generative AI-led transformation in the country.”

Applications for the AWS Spotlight Program are open from June 13 to June 30, 2024, and selected startups will be announced in July 2024.