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Cisco has already committed €200m of this fund into strategic investments with rising AI start-ups such as Mistral AI.
Tech multinational Cisco has launched a €1bn fund to invest in AI start-ups globally and expand the development of secure, reliable AI.
The company has already committed €200m of this fund and has made “strategic investments” into start-ups such as Mistral AI, Scale AI and Cohere. Cisco said these investments will complement its own AI innovation strategy.
An IDC report predicts that the global AI market is expected to double in size to more than $500bn in the next three years. Cisco said it has made more than 20 AI-focused investments and acquisitions in recent years and plans to continue to invest in start-ups focusing on this sector and enter into collaborations to “co-innovate” on products.
“For more than 30 years, Cisco Investments has invested and partnered with hundreds of companies to drive innovation both within Cisco’s core markets and in new strategic areas,” said Cisco chief strategy officer Mark Patterson. “Our recent investments in generative AI companies align perfectly with this long-standing strategy.
“We believe we are well positioned to be the best strategic partner for our customers in the AI era as they look to build, secure and power AI. In addition to building essential technology to connect, secure and advance AI, Cisco is committed to investing in the broader AI ecosystem to more effectively meet our customers’ needs.”
Cisco’s focus on investing in AI start-ups follows similar moves made by tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon. Microsoft has developed a suite of AI-focused products and services thanks to its investment into OpenAI and it also invested in Mistral AI earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Amazon has invested billions into Anthropic, a challenger to OpenAI that is working on its own large language models to compete with ChatGPT.
Earlier this year, Cisco announced plans to cut 5pc of its global workforce, more than 4,000 jobs, to “realign the organisation” and invest more in key priority areas.
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