Pi is designed to compete with ChatGPT and provide “emotional assistance” to humans.

Inflection AI, a California-based startup supported by major players in Silicon Valley, announced last week that it has secured $1.3 billion in funding from investors, including Microsoft and Nvidia. 

According to report, the funding consists of a combination of cash and cloud credits, resulting in a valuation of $4 billion for the one-year-old company. 

The company, which was founded in 2022 by Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of Google DeepMind, and Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, earned this significant investment to further develop its recently-launched chatbot named Pi, which utilizes generative AI technology similar to ChatGPT. 

Pi engages in interactive dialogues with users, allowing them to ask questions and provide feedback.

Inflection AI specializes in developing AI products for consumer use and is recognized as a prominent competitor to OpenAI.

The objective of Pi is to create a personal AI assistant that assists individuals with tasks such as planning, scheduling, information gathering, and more.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, US, and with an office in London, UK, Inflection AI currently employs 35 individuals. In early 2022, the company raised $225 million in its initial funding round from investors such as Greylock, Microsoft, and Reid Hoffman.

Inflection recently claimed that its Inflection-1 model, the technology powering Pi, is superior in performance compared to most existing models.

The largest part of funds will be allocated to expand computing power and to build a cluster of around 22,000 H100s, which is approximately three times the computing capacity used to train GPT4.

Microsoft, an existing investor and supporter of OpenAI, participated in Inflection's latest funding round. Other notable participants in the round include Nvidia, which has recently increased its AI investments, as well as Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, according to Inflection.