Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a $230 million commitment to generative AI startups, and the expansion of the global Generative AI Accelerator, intended to help 80 founders and innovators. The company intends to turbocharge the growth of startups in this space with tailored technical and business programming. Applications for the AWS Generative AI Accelerator are open today and will remain so until July 19.
Over the 10-week global program starting October 1, founders of selected generative AI startups will have access to sessions focused on developing skills related to machine learning, stack optimization, and go-to-market strategies. The founders may also receive up to $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, along with business and technical mentorship within founders’ industries and opportunities to interact with industry experts.
AWS has also launched the new AWS Generative AI Spotlight program in the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), which is a four-week accelerator program to nurture pre-seed and seed-stage-ready startups building generative AI applications. The program will help selected startups 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 peer support from a community of innovators of fellow cohort members within the region. The cohort participants will also have access to the AWS startup flagship AWS Activate program and receive up to $100,000 in AWS Credits, subject to Accelerator T&C and AWS discretion.
“For 18 years, AWS has helped more startups build, launch, and scale than any other cloud provider – it’s no coincidence that 96 per cent of all AI/ML unicorns run on AWS. The AWS global Generative AI Accelerator, and AWS Spotlight program in APJ, is part of AWS’ commitment to helping startups 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 how we live, work, and play.”
The AWS Generative AI Spotlight program in APJ is collaborating with venture capital firms and organizations in key cities. In India, AWS is collaborating with venture capital firm Accel. Last year, AWS collaborated with Accel to launch ML Elevate 2023, a six-weeklong accelerator program that supported 35 generative AI startups in India. The program in APJ will select up to 120 pre-seed and seed-stage-ready startups across the region, including 40 from India.
“GenAI 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 programs are designed to offer selected startups access to various resources like 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 driving generative AI-led transformation in the country.”
Applications for the AWS Spotlight Program are open from June 13 to June 30; selected startups will be announced in July.