At the Google Cloud Summit recently held in Bengaluru, the tech giant announced the Emerging ISV Partner Springboard, a 12-week program aiming to help AI startups accelerate their business growth. The initiative will provide hands-on support for creating Google Tag Manager (GTM) tools, and get access to Google AI experts for product refinement and guidance on technical architecture.
This initiative adds to Google’s list of AI accelerator programs, but what’s more interesting is that they are not only creating their own programs but also partnering with other famous accelerators, including Y Combinator.
Startups part of ISV Partner Springboard. Source: Google Cloud
Google and AI Accelerators
A few months ago, Google partnered with Y Combinator, one of the largest startup accelerators in the world, to provide dedicated access to NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPU) and Google Cloud tensor processing units (TPU), cloud credits, support, and mentorship to its Summer 2024 batch of AI startups under the YC program.
Through this partnership, YC startups can request on-demand access via Google Cloud’s workload scheduler or reserve capacity through dedicated account representatives.
Furthermore, the startups will get access to the Google for Startups Cloud Program AI Scale Tier, which offers up to $3,50,000 in Google Cloud credits over two years and also $12,000 in ‘Google Cloud Enhanced Support’ credits for one year. With guidance and mentorship from Google AI experts, the YC startups will have access to Google’s engineers and global community.
Interestingly, Y Combinator is not the only accelerator program Google has partnered with. The big tech has partnered with AI accelerators 500, Stanford-backed StartX and Berkeley University-backed Berkeley Skydeck. They are providing Google Cloud credits, expert guidance, and technical workshops.
Google Ecosystem Retained
The availability of Google’s suite of product founders makes operations simpler for new founders. Shahul ES, co-founder of the YC-backed Bengaluru startup Ragas, which is building an open-source stand for evaluating applications using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), shared his insights with AIM.
“I’m not sure about the economics behind these GPUs and cloud credits. For founders, however, it helps to reduce the barriers to entry. To get hands on these many clusters without past background (of large bills) or contacts is difficult. This collaboration between YC and cloud players, GPU infra players, makes it easier to get access,” said Shahul.
Ragas was selected for the YC Fall 2023 batch, led by Shahul, a Kaggle Grandmaster. The startup is now looking to expand beyond RAG systems to include complex applications such as agent tool-based calls.
Interestingly, the system of getting new AI startup founders onto a Google ecosystem has an advantage that goes beyond their cohort batch. Anuj Srivastava, co-founder of Bengaluru-based finance startup OnFinance, is leveraging AI to bring solutions to the BFSI sector. The startup was part of JioGenNext, Reliance’s startup accelerator program, where they support and help scale AI startups.
“Cloud services provide startups with credits that allow them to establish their infrastructure on these platforms. By doing so, they help these young companies scale effectively. As the startups grow and their needs increase, they often continue to use the same cloud services (even if not free anymore), given their entire setup is already integrated within that ecosystem,” said Srivastava to AIM.
The fintech startup founder believes this strategy is particularly effective today, considering the number of early-stage startups that continue to rise.
Big Tech and AI Accelerators
Google’s partnership with other AI accelerators is definitely unique, considering several big tech companies that offer cloud services have their own programs to support AI startups.
In addition to the emerging ISV Springboard program, Google has also launched ‘Startup School: GenAI’ — a free, four-week training program to help startups maximise AI’s potential. Other initiatives that support AI startups include the Google for Startup Accelerator program and the Google for Startups Cloud Program.
Similarly, Amazon has announced the AWS Generative AI Accelerator, a 10-week program that supports GenAI startups through benefits that include $1 million in AWS promotional credits. They have even launched an AI startup hub program in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu government to help accelerate public-centric initiatives.
GPU giant NVIDIA also has a cohort program known as ‘NVIDIA Inception,’ where AI startups will have access to the latest NVIDIA GPU technologies and developer resources along with cloud credits through NVIDIA partners.
It is clear that cloud providers supporting emerging AI startups creates a win-win situation for both parties, especially for big tech, given the ongoing cloud wars. Hence, Google seems to be making the right choice by partnering with other accelerators as well.
The post Google Takes the AI Accelerator Fast Lane appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.
