Big Tech Swallows Most of the Hot AI Startups
An acquisition spree by Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft eliminated potential rivals and concentrated brain power in this critical field.
Yoshua Bengio, scientific director of Mila; Geoffrey Hinton from Google; and Yann LeCun of Facebook Inc.
Photographer: Getty, AP, Bloomberg/Getty Images EuropeIn 2016, Seattle-based startup Turi Inc. was helping almost 100 customers create and manage software that uses machine learning, a powerful type of artificial intelligence. Its technology was so promising that Apple Inc. snapped it up for $200 million.
The deal was a triumph for investors and founders, but one backer thought Turi — and the broader tech industry — might be better off if the startup had spurned Apple’s advances. Matt McIlwain, managing director at Madrona Venture Group, said it’s important that at least some emerging tech businesses remain independent, rather than falling into the arms of Apple, Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc., Google or Microsoft Corp.