Amazon Alexa Fund Expands Scope of Investments to Include AI
The Amazon Alexa Fund has expanded the scope of its investments to include a variety of developments in artificial intelligence (AI).
The fund, which was launched in 2015 to provide venture capital funding for voice and smart devices, has also been investing in startups focused on AI-enabled hardware, generative media, smart agents, AI architectures and other projects in the AI field, according to a Wednesday (March 26) blog post from Amazon.
Amazon Alexa Fund Director Paul Bernard said in the post that Amazon and Alexa have already been at the forefront of AI, that the company sees opportunities for AI to make customers’ lives better, and that fund has expanded its focus without changing its commitment to advance the state of the art.
“Some areas we think are really exciting include next-generation assistant experiences with autonomous agents that have specialized expertise and deeper personalization; on-the-go experiences utilizing new sensors and innovative devices beyond smartphone capabilities; emerging AI architectures that will deliver improvements in cost, speed and accuracy; AI-powered media that enable new-to-world experiences across media types and interaction modes; and embedded AI technologies, which have the potential to change how machines interact with the physical world through multimodal perception, advanced reasoning systems and new sensors,” Bernard said in the post.
Four of the Amazon Alexa Fund’s latest investments include NinjaTech AI, which is working on an agentic generative AI assistant; Hedra, which is developing tools for producing video, images and audio; Ario, which has a personal AI assistant designed for parents; and HeyBoss, which has built an AI agent that can design and develop websites and apps, according to the post.
“In addition to equity capital, we build a close working relationship between portfolio companies and the many Amazon businesses and technologies that could help advance their vision,” Bernard said in the post.
Amazon has been deploying AI throughout its own operations.
The company said Wednesday that it has been adding AI-powered tools to identify counterfeit items and to help brands and sellers protect their products globally.
Amazon also plans to invest over $100 billion in capital expenditures in 2025, with the majority directed toward enhancing AI capabilities in its AWS cloud division.
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