Artificial intelligence is advancing rapidly, with technology transforming industries from music to coding. The first half of 2024 alone saw billions invested into AI startups, leading to a burgeoning wave of innovation. Bloomberg has identified ten prominent AI startups to follow closely in the coming year.
1. OpenAI Based in San Francisco, OpenAI has been a dominant force, raising over $13 billion, with a valuation of $86 billion. OpenAI's ChatGPT and GPT-4 models have set the standard in AI, though its ventures into video generation and real-time human-like voice response are yet to launch publicly. The company's leadership saga, including CEO Sam Altman’s brief departure, added to its dramatic rise.
2. Anthropic Founded by former OpenAI staff, Anthropic is an emerging rival with its Claude AI models. Valued at $18.2 billion, it has attracted backing from Alphabet’s Google and Amazon, and its latest model reportedly surpasses OpenAI’s in key evaluations like coding and reasoning. The startup emphasizes AI safety and business tools, serving clients such as Salesforce and Pfizer.
3. Suno Cambridge-based Suno specializes in AI music generation, valued at $500 million. Its software can create songs with lifelike vocals in seconds. However, the company faces legal challenges from major record labels over the use of copyrighted material in its training data.
4. Perplexity Perplexity, a San Francisco-based AI search engine startup, has quickly gained attention, valued at $1 billion. Its conversational search tools aim to disrupt traditional search engines like Google. Backed by tech giants like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia, the startup has also sparked controversy over potential plagiarism.
5. Mistral Parisian startup Mistral is making waves with open-source large language models (LLMs) and developer tools. With a valuation of $6 billion, Mistral positions itself as an alternative to Silicon Valley, despite collaborations with Microsoft and IBM.
6. xAI Elon Musk’s xAI is known for its "anti-woke" chatbot, Grok, trained on posts from X (formerly Twitter). Valued at $24 billion, the startup plans to build a supercomputer facility, further bolstering its AI infrastructure.
7. Scale AI Providing data labeling services, Scale AI supports the development of AI products for OpenAI, Google, and the U.S. Department of Defense. Its value has surged to $13.8 billion, driven by growing demand for high-quality data for AI systems.
8. Cohere Toronto’s Cohere focuses on business applications of LLMs and has raised nearly $1 billion. With notable investors such as Nvidia and Oracle, its models like Command R+ are gaining traction in enterprise sectors, serving companies such as Salesforce.
9. CoreWeave CoreWeave provides critical cloud computing infrastructure to AI firms. Recently valued at $19 billion, it has secured contracts with OpenAI and Microsoft, ensuring the availability of graphics processing units (GPUs) necessary for AI development.
10. ElevenLabs ElevenLabs, based in New York, is a leader in AI voice-cloning, with a valuation of $1.1 billion. Its voice-generating software has stirred concerns over misuse, such as deepfakes, but it has also enabled accessibility improvements for individuals with speech difficulties.
Emerging Players The AI landscape continues to evolve with up-and-coming startups like Cognition AI, Helsing, Imbue, Safe Superintelligence, 01.AI, and Covariant. These companies are tackling AI challenges in fields ranging from software engineering to defense and robotics, marking them as potential disruptors.
The rapid rise of these startups showcases AI's transformative power, yet the industry faces ongoing debates over ethics, safety, and data use.
