Is there too much competition in AI foundation models?

Advanced Computing, AI/ML, Chips, and Extended Reality

Good morning,

Marc Andreessen has shared his concern that everyone can build a foundational AI model, meaning that everyone is creating a ‘race to the bottom.’ Now, research company Forrester, in its inaugural analysis of foundational LLMs outlined the ten most promising companies building those foundational models: AWS, Anthropic, Cohere, Databricks, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Mistral, Nvidia, and OpenAI (the second half of the alphabet needs to step up its game in getting picked for names by companies, apparently). Of course, AWS, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Nvidia are all public companies. Want to guess how many of the privately held companies sit in a16z’s portfolio? a16z is invested in Databricks, Mistral, and OpenAI. Three of the five startups.

I’m not saying that Andreessen is wrong (he’s likely not) about the companies being in a race to the bottom, but he certainly has good reason to want to limit any additional competition from entering the field. Speaking of a16z, they’v…