These 14 AI Startups Are Vying for a Piece of $1.5 Million in Prizes

Big dreams. Bright lights. And a peek at the future of AI. Welcome to NVIDIA’s AI startup challenge. In a rapid-fire panoply of pitches, more than a dozen emerging AI companies vied to win over skeptical judges and take home a chunk of the $1.5 million in cash prizes we’re handing out at our GPU Technology Conference next month. The awards are a first for our eight-month-old Inception virtual accelerator program, which supports 1,300 fledgling businesses revolutionizing industries with AI. The prize purse is believed to be one of the richest for any startup competition. “This is about selecting the best and most promising AI startups,” said NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang in remarks kicking off Pitch Day. He is a member of the all-star judging panel that will choose the top teams. Winners will be announced at the Inception Awards Gala on May 10 during GTC, the world’s most important GPU developer conference. The cash – and the acclaim – could be game-changing for a young company.