The two biggest publically traded companies that are pushing for more AI technology to the public are Microsoft, with its various software services, and Nvidia, with its development of AI GPUs. Today, the two companies have jointly announced plans to help support AI-based startup companies that are concentrating on the health and life science industries,
In a blog post, the company stated its Microsoft for Startups program will offer accepted startup companies in those specific areas up to $150,000 in Azure Credits for four years. This will allow those startups to access different AI large language models like Azure OpenAI Service, Meta’s Llama, and Phi to help develop their ideas with cloud technology.
Those same accepted startups will also get up to $200,000 worth of access to Microsoft 365, Visual Studio, and GitHub, among other productivity services. They will receive free technical support, and priority access to its Pegasus program, which offers a way to use Microsoft"s sales teams.
Nvidia also announced support for AI-themed health startups with its own Inception program. It stated:
NVIDIA Inception will provide 10,000 ai.nvidia.com inference credits to run GPU-optimized AI models through NVIDIA-managed serverless APIs; preferred pricing on NVIDIA AI Enterprise, which includes the full suite of NVIDIA Clara healthcare and life sciences computing platforms, software and services; early access to new NVIDIA healthcare offerings; and opportunities to connect with investors through the Inception VC Alliance and with industry partners through the Inception Alliance for Healthcare.
Any interested startups that would like to get this kind of support for their AI health-theme products and services can apply to the Microsoft for Startup Founder Hub website along with the Nvidia Inception site. Both companies hinted strongly that it could expand this AI startup support program in the future to include companies in other business and technology fields.