Andy Konwinski, computer scientist and co-founder of Databricks and Perplexity, revealed Monday that his business, Laude, is forming a brand-new AI research study institute backed with $100 million of his own money.The Laude Institute works less as an AI research study laboratory and more like a fund wanting to make investments structured comparable to grants.
In addition to Konwinski, the institutes board includes UC Berkeley teacher Dave Patterson (known for a string of acclaimed research study), Jeff Dean (referred to as Googles chief researcher), and Joelle Pineau (Metas vice president of AI Research).
Konwinski revealed the institutes first and flagship grant of $3 million every year for 5 years, which will anchor the new AI Systems Lab at UC Berkeley.
This is a brand-new lab led by one of Berkeleys most popular researchers, Ion Stoica, existing director of the Sky Computing Lab.
Stoica is likewise a co-founder of start-up Anyscale (an AI and Python platform) and AI big information company Databricks, both built from tech developed in Berkeleys laboratory system.The new AI Systems Lab is set to open in 2027 and in addition to Stoica will include a variety of other widely known researchers.In his post revealing the institute, Konwinski explained its objective as developed by and for computer technology scientists We exist to catalyze work that doesnt just push the field forward but guides it towards more advantageous outcomes.Thats not necessarily a direct dig at OpenAI, which began as an AI research study center and is now, probably, taken in by its huge business side.
However other scientists have actually fallen prey to the lure of cash as well.For circumstances, popular AI scientist Epoch dealt with controversy when it exposed that OpenAI supported the production of among its AI standards that was then usedto unveil its new o3 model.
Epochs founder likewise released a startup with the questionable objective to change all human employees all over with AI agents.Like other AI research organizations with business aspirations, Konwinski has structured his institute across limits: as a not-for-profit with a public advantage corporation running arm.Hes dividing his research study financial investments into 2 pails that he calls Slingshots and Moonshots.
Slingshots are for early-stage research study that can benefit from grants and hands-on help.
Moonshots are, as the name indicates, for long-horizon labs dealing with species-level challenges like AI for clinical discovery, civic discourse, health care, and workforce re-skilling.
His lab has, for example, teamed up with terminal-bench, a Stanford-led standard for how well AI agents deal with tasks, utilized by Anthropic.One thing to note, Konwinskis ventures under the name Laude arent entirely a grant-writing research institute.
He likewise co-founded a for-profit venture fund launched in 2024.
The funds co-founder is previous NEA VC Pete Sonsini, and a Laude spokesperson informs us it has more than 50 leading scientists as LPs in the fund.
As A Technology NewsRoom formerly reported, Laude led a $12 million investment in AI representative infrastructure start-up Arcade.
It has quietly backed other startups, too.A Laude spokesperson informs us that while Konwinski has promised $100 million, hes also looking for, and open up to, investment from other successful technologists.
Regarding how Konwinski collected a fortune huge enough to ensure $100 million for this new endeavor: Databricks closed a $15.3 billion financing round in January that valued the company at $62 billion.
Perplexity last month secured a $14 billion valuation, too.Does the world really require yet more AI good for mankind research study or another AI company with a dirty nonprofit/commercial structure? No, and yes.AI research has ended up being progressively muddled.
For instance, AI benchmarks developed to show that a particular suppliers model works finest have become numerous nowadays.
(Even Salesforce has its own LLM benchmark for CRMs.)An alliance that consists of the similarity Konwinski, Dean, and Stoica supporting really independent research study that could one day become independent and human-helpful commerce could be an appealing alternative.Note: This story was upgraded to show more information shared about the Laude VC fund.