TL;DR:
- Together, a startup focused on open-source generative AI secures a substantial $102.5 million Series A funding round.
- Funding led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Nvidia and Emergence Capital, marks a significant milestone for the company.
- The investment will bolster Together’s cloud platform, enabling developers to build on open and custom AI models.
- CEO Vipul Ved Prakash emphasizes the importance of offering generative AI solutions free from vendor lock-in.
- Together’s cloud platform provides scalable compute at competitive prices compared to major vendors like Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure.
- The company operates a robust cloud infrastructure in the U.S. and EU, with a focus on cost-effective solutions.
- Pika Labs, another notable startup, benefits from Together’s GPU clusters for text-to-video model development.
- The platform empowers developers to integrate open-source models or create custom models through pre-training or fine-tuning.
- Custom Models consulting service allows customers to leverage Together’s expertise for tailored AI solutions.
- Together actively contributes to open source AI research with projects like RedPajama, GPT-JT, and OpenChatKit.
- The generative AI sector is experiencing a surge in investments, with projections of reaching $143 billion by 2027.
- Notably, generative AI startups secured 40% of all startup funding rounds in the first half of 2023.
- Challenges persist in the generative AI market, as exemplified by Stability AI’s exploration of sale options due to financial struggles.
Main AI News:
Generative AI companies are witnessing a surge in investment, fueling their aspirations for both commercial and open-source advancements. One notable player in this arena is Together, a startup dedicated to fostering open-source generative AI and AI model development infrastructure. Today, Together proudly announced the successful closure of a monumental $102.5 million Series A funding round, led by the prestigious Kleiner Perkins, with participation from tech giants Nvidia and Emergence Capital. This substantial investment, surpassing the size of their previous funding round by more than fivefold, is earmarked for the expansion of Together’s innovative cloud platform. This platform empowers developers to harness the potential of open and custom AI models, according to Vipul Ved Prakash, the Co-founder and CEO of Together.
In a recent blog post on Together’s website, Prakash emphasized the growing interest of startups and enterprises in crafting a generative AI strategy that liberates them from vendor lock-ins. He underscored the pivotal role played by open source AI in providing a robust foundation for applications, especially with the frequent release of increasingly potent generative models. Prakash firmly believes that generative AI represents a platform technology, akin to a new operating system for applications, with far-reaching impacts on human society. He envisions an AI ecosystem that encompasses both proprietary and open models, highlighting the critical need for choice and diversity in this evolving landscape.
Together, founded in June 2022 by Vipul Ved Prakash, Ce Zhang, Chris Re, and Percy Liang, aims to provide open source models and services that facilitate the seamless integration of AI into various applications. To achieve this Together has developed a cloud platform tailored for running, training, and fine-tuning models. The founders assert that this platform offers scalable computing power at more economical rates compared to dominant vendors like Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure.
As elucidated in a blog post by Together, their approach involves optimizing the entire infrastructure, including the utilization of thousands of GPUs across secure facilities, virtualization software, scheduling, and model optimization techniques. The outcome is a significant reduction in operating costs, making AI adoption more accessible to a broader spectrum of organizations.
Presently, Together operates a robust cloud infrastructure spanning data centers in the U.S. and EU, in collaboration with partners such as Crusoe Cloud and Vultr. This infrastructure delivers a staggering 20 exaflops of computing power in total, with the ability to scale from clusters comprising 16 GPUs to a massive 2,048 GPUs. Notable customers, including NexusFlow, Voyage AI, and Cartesia, leverage Together’s APIs to serve their models effectively.
Interestingly, Pika Labs, a company that recently secured $55 million in funding, also utilizes Together’s GPU clusters to build and refine their text-to-video model. This synergy has enabled Pika Labs to generate millions of videos each month for their early access users.
Vipul Ved Prakash further elaborated on their unique approach by stating, “By creating custom infrastructure, we can offer significantly better economics.” The Together platform empowers developers to swiftly integrate leading open source models or craft their models through pre-training or fine-tuning. Customers are drawn to Together’s exceptional performance and reliability, with the assurance that they retain ownership of their AI investments and the freedom to run their models on any platform.
To complement their cloud services, Together offers Custom Models, a consulting service that allows customers to bring their own data to the Together cloud platform. The experienced Together team collaborates closely with customers to design, build, and test tailored AI models.
Apart from their cloud services, Together is committed to advancing open source AI research. Some of their noteworthy projects include RedPajama, which is aimed at nurturing a set of open-source generative AI models akin to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. They have also released a fine-tuned version of Meta’s Llama 2 text-generating model, GPT-JT, a fork of the open source text-analyzing model GPT-J-6B by EleutherAI, and OpenChatKit, an endeavor to create an equivalent of ChatGPT.
The surge in interest and investment in generative AI is undeniable. According to IDC, investments in generative AI are projected to skyrocket from $16 billion this year to a staggering $143 billion by 2027. Startups in the generative AI sector are commanding a significant portion of venture capital investments, securing approximately 40% of all startup rounds, equivalent to $11.9 billion, in the first half of 2023.
However, it’s important to note that the generative AI landscape is not without its challenges. Some players, like Stability AI, once favored by prominent VC firms, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, O’Shaughnessy Ventures, and Coatue, are now reportedly exploring sale options due to the absence of expected profits and deteriorating financial stability. As the generative AI field continues to evolve, companies like Together are poised to lead the charge in shaping the future of AI innovation.
Conclusion:
The substantial investment in Together reflects the growing demand and potential of the open source generative AI market. With a focus on cost-effective solutions and a commitment to open source research, Together is well-positioned to lead in this evolving landscape. The surge in generative AI investments signifies its transformative impact, but challenges also underline the need for sustainable business models in this dynamic sector.
