Cisco announces a $1 billion AI fund and makes initial investments.
Cisco announced on Tuesday a $1 billion fund to invest in artificial intelligence startups, following a long line of large technology corporations seeking to acquire minor AI firms. The corporation, through its investment arm, is investing in Cohere, Mistral AI, and Scale AI, among others, and has already contributed over $200 million to the fund, according to the statement. Scale AI, an AI data business, is valued at around $14 billion, while so-called foundation model developers Cohere and Mistral are reportedly in talks with investors to raise financing at a price of $5 billion apiece. Foundational AI models are generated with massive amounts of data and may be applied to a wide range of use cases. After Microsoft-backed OpenAI launched ChatGPT in 2022, other tech corporations, including Meta and Amazon invested in several AI startups. Cisco has undertaken over 20 AI-focused acquisitions and investments in recent years, advancing generative AI and machine learning, as well as inte