Cisco Investments, the technology company's venture capital arm, has announced the creation of a $1 billion artificial intelligence investment fund. The aim is to strengthen the startup ecosystem and expand the development of safe and reliable AI solutions.
Mark Patterson, Chief Strategy Officer at Cisco, says that the US company's investment division "has always invested in and partnered with hundreds of companies to drive innovation."
"We are well positioned to become the best strategic partner for customers looking to build, protect and operate artificial intelligence. Cisco is also committed to investing in the broader AI ecosystem to better meet the needs of our customers," he adds.
In recent years, Cisco has made more than 20 acquisitions and investments focused on this technology, strengthening generative AI (GenAI) and machine learning, and integrating AI into its offerings.
Through this new fund, the company has already made strategic investments in Cohere, Mistral AI and Scale AI, totaling nearly $200 million to date.
Cohere, based in Toronto, Canada, and San Francisco, California, provides language models (LLMs) with a focus on security and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) capabilities tailored to the needs of enterprises.
Mistral AI, headquartered in Paris, France, specializes in GenAI for enterprises. The company combines scientific excellence with an open approach and a responsible vision of technology.
Scale AI, based in the United States, provides a data-centric end-to-end platform for AI applications and offers training and validation. Cisco participated in the financing of the company and became the largest investor.
"The establishment of this investment fund is in line with our intention to drive the transformative power of artificial intelligence and its potential to redefine economic sectors worldwide," says Derek Idemoto, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Investments at Cisco.
"It represents our unwavering commitment to AI and innovation, and to the entrepreneurs and visionaries who are defining the next technology revolution," he adds.
