Telecom giant QualComm has launched a $100 million fund that will invest in AI startups.. The QualComm Ventures AI Fund has particular interest in firms developing new technologies for self-driving autos and robot platforms that emphasize lower power processing and connectivity.
Ali Longwell reported on QualComm’s AI Fund for SDXCentral:
The fund invested in its first venture — Tel Aviv-based AnyVision, an AI development startup working on face, object, and human recognition. Qualcomm contributed an unknown amount to its $28 million Series A funding round, which was led by Bosch in July.
AnyVision’s technology is built to function on a sensor and operate in real-time. It relies on data acquisition and proprietary algorithms to index and analyze everything that is “seen” by the sensor.
Prior to launching the fund, Qualcomm has previously invested in AI startups out of its investment arm. These investments include to SenseTime, a Beijing, China-based facial recognition company, and Cruise, a self-driving car startup which has since been acquired by GM.
Qualcomm has already begun to integrate AI into its chipsets. In April it launched an IoT platform called Vision Intelligence, which included a family of system-on-chips (SoCs) that use an Ai-engine. The SoCs are equipped with machine learning and computer vision software development kits to help cameras in devices handle tasks like tracking, object detection, classification, and facial recognition.
