Samsung Electronics launched a new fund through its innovation strategy arm Samsung NEXT on Thursday, seeking to make investments in startups devoted to artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
Q Fund will provide Seed and Series A financing to startups solving AI problems, as well as those using AI to solve computer science problems. Q Fund will enable Samsung NEXT to work closely with researchers and startups to create meaningful exposure to the entire AI stack.
Problem spaces Q Fund will examine could include areas such as learning in simulation, scene understanding, intuitive physics, program learning programs, automl, robot control, human computer interaction and meta learning.
The move came as Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong has been setting eyes on the AI technology as a new growth engine for the company.
The NEXT Q Fund is expected to not only provide direct financial support for startups but also provide the firms with other opportunities for their research and development projects.
Samsung Electronics recently opened AI research centers in South Korea, the United States, Britain, Canada and Russia, with another in France also expected to open in the near future. |