Sakana AI Secures Major Investment from Nvidia, Joining Unicorn Ranks
Sakana AI, a Tokyo-based startup specializing in generative AI, announced on September 4th that it has received a significant investment from Nvidia, the US semiconductor giant. This investment propels Sakana AI into the prestigious ranks of unicorn startups, with a valuation exceeding $1 billion.
The investment amount from Nvidia remains undisclosed, but it is expected to make the chipmaker a major shareholder in Sakana AI. This partnership grants Sakana AI priority access to Nvidia's latest GPUs, crucial for AI development and operation.
Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, praised Sakana AI's efforts in democratizing AI in Japan through its cutting-edge foundation models developed on Nvidia's platform. This investment signifies Nvidia's growing interest in AI development companies, with Sakana AI becoming its chosen partner in Japan.
Founded in July 2022 by former Google AI researchers, Sakana AI's name reflects its unique approach to AI development. "Sakana," meaning fish in Japanese, symbolizes the company's independent path, represented by the single red fish branching away from its school in the logo.
Sakana AI specializes in developing foundation AI models for text and image generation. Their strength lies in combining existing models to create high-performance AI models quickly and cost-effectively. One notable project is Evo-Ukiyoe, where the AI was trained to generate images in the style of traditional Japanese ukiyo-e art.
While well-funded entities like Google and OpenAI currently lead the AI development race, concerns about rising power consumption and overheated investments are growing. In this context, Sakana AI's unique approach and innovative technologies offer promising potential, raising expectations for the future of AI development.