Alphabet-owned Google is currently in negotiations to pour massive funding into Character.AI, an accelerating artificial intelligence chatbot firm vying for an influx of funds to enhance the training of its models and meet rising consumer demand, shared insiders who were privy to the situation.
Google’s proposed investment, potentially shaped as convertible debt securities as suggested by a distinct informer, aims to reinforce the existing collaboration between the startup and the tech giant, where the latter’s cloud infrastructure and Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) play crucial roles in training Character.AI’s models.
Offering a multitude of unique entities and behavioral patterns, the chatbots developed by Character.AI have struck a note with the young adult audience (18-24 years old), who make up approximately 60% of the traffic on its digital platform, based on data collected by Similarweb.
This key demographic is enabling Character.AI to carve out its niche within the AI market as a creator of engaging and enjoyable AI chat mates, a significant deviation from the traditional AI chatbot software created by tech behemoths such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.
The firm had previously reported that its website had seen a traffic influx of an astounding 100 million visits per month during the half-year period after its debut. Meanwhile, Character.AI is also holding parallel discussions with venture capitalists to secure equity financing, with such developments potentially placing the company’s valuation well beyond the $5-billion mark.
In the previous fiscal quarter, Character.AI secured $150 million in a funding round orchestrated by Andreessen Horowitz, with the company’s value reaching a staggering $1 billion. The ongoing negotiations with Google could alter the specifics of the potential alliance, shared the sources who wished to remain unnamed as the discussions are confidential.
Google has shown a track record of channeling funds into AI-based startups. A case in point is the $2-billion investment into model creator firm Anthropic in the form of convertible notes, supplementing its earlier equity funding. On top of that, Anthropic employs Google’s cloud solutions and the latest TPU models.
This forms part of the larger pattern where dominant cloud services providers are fostering joint ventures with AI outfits to persuade them to adopt their dedicated cloud or computing hardware. This trend reflects the current cut-throat competition to build models and serve consumer needs efficiently, made evident through Microsoft’s investments into OpenAI and Google and Amazon’s stakes in Anthropic.
Last week in San Francisco, Lina Khan, chairperson of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), stated that the FTC is currently investigating the conduct of cloud solution providers investing in AI enterprises to discern any signs of anti-competitive strategies.