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Artificial intelligence companies are riding a hyper-accelerated growth curve. Like the crack of a starting gun, the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT awakened the world to the vast potential of AIparticularly generative AI. As more companies invest in machine learning, automation, robotics, and AI-based data analytics solutions, the AI algorithm has quickly become the foundational technology of business.

This list of AI companies chronicles this growth by reflecting the dynamic shifts disrupting the tech industry. It covers the full ecosystem of AI vendors: new generative AI companies, entrenched giants, AI purveyors across verticals, and upstart visionaries. Theres no telling which will most influence AIs future, but we believe that the players on this list as a whole will profoundly reshape technology and, as a direct result, the arts, retail, and the entirety of culture.

Its no coincidence that this top AI companies list is composed mostly of cloud providers. Artificial intelligence requires massive storage and compute power at the level provided by the top cloud platforms. These cloud leaders are offering a growing menu of AI solutions to existing clients, giving them an enormous competitive advantage in the battle for AI market share. The cloud leaders represented also have deep pockets, which is key to their success, as AI development is exceptionally expensive.

Enterprise leader in AI

As a dominant provider of enterprise solutions and a cloud leaderits Azure Cloud is second only to AWSMicrosoft has invested heavily in AI, with plenty to show for it. For example, it has significantly expanded its relationship with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, leading to the development of intelligent AI copilots and other generative AI technologies that are embedded or otherwise integrated with Microsofts products. Leveraging its massive supercomputing platform, its goal is to enable customers to build out AI applications on a global scale. With its existing infrastructure and partnerships, current trajectory, and penchant for innovation, its likely that Microsoft will be the leading provider of AI solutions to the enterprise in the long run.

Top-tier managed services for cloud and AI

As the top dog in the all-important world of cloud computing, few companies are better positioned than AWS to provide AI services and machine learning to a massive customer base. In true AWS fashion, its profusion of new tools is endless and intensely focused on making AI accessible to enterprise buyers. AWSs long list of AI services includes quality control, machine learning, chatbots, automated speech recognition, and online fraud detection. It is one of the best providers of innovative AI managed services.

To learn about new direction in generative AI, see the eWeek video: AWS VP Bratin Saha on the Bedrock Generative AI Tools

Leading generative AI for technical and non-technical audiences

As the most successful search giant of all time, Googles historic strength is in algorithms, which is the very foundation of AI. Though Google Cloud is perennially a distant third in the cloud market, its platform is a natural conduit to offer AI services to customers. The Gemini ecosystem has proven especially popular and innovative, combining access to generative AI infrastructure, developer tools, and a user-friendly natural language interface. The company is also heavily focused on responsible AI and communicating how it is working toward an ethical AI approach.

Founder of Watson and watsonx AI solutions

A top hybrid and multicloud vendor, boosted by its acquisition of Red Hat in 2019, IBMs deep-pocketed global customer base has the resources to invest heavily in AI. IBM has an extensive AI portfolio, highlighted by the Watson platform, with strengths in conversational AI, machine learning, and automation. The company invests deeply in R&D and has a treasure trove of patents; its AI alliance with MIT will also likely fuel unique advances in the future.

Leading provider of GPUs and other AI infrastructure

All roads lead to Nvidia as AIespecially generative AI and larger modelsgrows ever more important. At the center of Nvidias strength is the companys wicked-fast GPUs, which provide the power and speed for compute-intensive AI applications. Additionally, Nvidia offers a full suite of software solutions, from generative AI to AI training to AI cybersecurity. It also has a network of partnerships with large businesses to develop AI and frequently funds AI startups.

For an in-depth look a how generative AI and advanced hardware are changing security, see the eWeek video: Nvidia CSO David Reber on AI and Cybersecurity

Embedded AI assistance in social media apps

Metathe parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and many other popular platformshas had a slightly slower start on generative AI than some of the other tech giants, but it has nonetheless blazed through to create some of the most ubiquitous and innovative solutions on the market today. Metas Llama 3, for example, is one of the largest and easiest to access LLMs on the market today, as it is open source and available for research and commercial use. The company is also very transparent with its own AI research and resources. Most recently, Meta has developed Meta AI, an intelligent assistant that can operate in the background of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Chinese innovator in AI and quantum computing

Little known in the U.S., Baidu owns the majority of the internet search market in China. The companys AI platform, Baidu Brain, processes text and images and builds user profiles. With the most recent generation, Baidu Brain 6.0, quantum computing capabilities have also expanded significantly. It has also launched its own ChatGPT-like tool, a generative AI chatbot called Ernie Bot.

Leader in cloud-based AI support

Oracles cloud platform has leapt forward over the past few yearsits now one of the top cloud vendorsand its cloud strength will be a major conduit for AI services to come. To bulk up its AI credentials, Oracle has partnered with Nvidia to boost enterprise AI adoption. The company stresses its machine learning and automation offerings and also sells a menu of prebuilt models to enable faster AI deployment.

To find out how a cloud leader is facing the challenges of todays IT sector, see the eWeek video: Oracle Clouds Leo Leung on Cloud Challenges and Solutions

Cloud leader and innovator in APAC region

Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant and leader in Asian cloud computing, split into six divisions, each empowered to raise capital. Of particular note is the Alibaba Cloud Intelligence group, which handles cloud and AI innovations and products. While Alibaba has been greatly hampered by government crackdowns, observers see the Cloud Intelligence group as a major support of AI development. The company is also working to optimize a ChatGPT-like tool.

For more information about todays leading generative AI software, see our guide: Top 20 Generative AI Tools & Applications

Think of these AI companies as the forward-looking cohort that is inventing and supporting the systems that propel AI forward. Its a mixed bunch with diverse approaches to AI, some more directly focused on AI tools than others. Note that most of these pioneer companies were founded between 2009 and 2013, long before the ChatGPT hype cycle.

These companies are at the center of a debate about who will have the most control over the future of AI. Will it be these agile and innovative pioneers, or the giant cloud vendors that have the deep infrastructure that AI needs and can sell their AI tools to an already-captive customer base?

Founder of ChatGPT

The world was forever changed when OpenAI debuted ChatGPT in November 2022a major milestone in the history of artificial intelligence. Founded in 2015 with $1 billion in seed funding, San Francisco-based OpenAI benefits from a cloud partnership with Microsoft, which has invested a rumored $13 billion in OpenAI. Not content to rest on its success, OpenAI has launched GPT-4, a larger multimodal version of its successful LLM foundation model, and continues to innovate in areas like text-to-video generation. The company also offers DALL-E, which creates artistic images from user text prompts.

Industry-focused AI solutions and services

Founded in 2009, C3.ai is part of a new breed of vendors that can be called an AI vendor: not a legacy tech company that has shifted into AI but a company created specifically to sell AI solutions to the enterprise. The company offers a long menu of turnkey AI solutions so companies can deploy AI without the complexity of building it themselves. Clients include the U.S. Air Force, which uses AI to predict system failure, and Shell, which uses C3.ai to monitor equipment across its sprawling infrastructure.

For in-depth comparison of C3.ai and a major competitor, see our guide: C3.ai vs. DataRobot: Top Cloud AI Platforms

Solutions provider for generative and predictive AI

Founded in 2011, H2O.ai is another company built from the ground up with the mission of providing AI software to the enterprise. H2O focuses on democratizing AI. This means that while AI has traditionally been available only to a few, H2O works to make AI practical for companies without major in-house AI expertise. With solutions for AI middleware, AI in-app stores, and AI applications, the company claims thousands of customers for its H2O Cloud.

To learn how computers can see the world around them, watch our eWeek video: H2O.ais Prashant Natarajan on AI and Computer Vision

Cloud-agnostic AI and data solutions

Founded in 2012, DataRobot offers an AI Cloud thats cloud-agnostic, so it works with all the cloud leaders (AWS, Azure, and Google, for example). Its built with a multicloud architecture that offers a single platform accessible to all manner of data professionals. Its value is that it provides data pros with deep AI support to analyze data, which supercharges data analysis and processing. Among its outcomes is faster and more flexible machine learning model creation.

For in-depth comparison of DataRobot and a major competitor, read DataRobot vs. H2O.ai: Top Cloud AI Platforms.

Next-gen data warehouse and AI data cloud vendor

Founded in 2012, Snowflake is a next-gen data warehouse vendor. Artificial intelligence requires oceanic amounts of data, properly prepped, shaped, and processed, and supporting this level of data crunching is one of Snowflakes strengths. Operating across AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, Snowflakes AI Data Cloud aims to eliminate data silos for optimized data gathering and processing.

For an expert take on how todays IT platforms are enabling wider data access, see the eWeek video: Snowflakes Torsten Grabs on AI and Democratizing Data

Low-code/no-code AI/ML model development platform

Founded in 2013, Dataiku is a vendor with an AI and machine learning platform that aims to democratize tech by enabling both data professionals and business professionals to create data models. Using shareable dashboards and built-in algorithms, Dataiku users can spin up machine learning or deep learning models; most helpfully, it allows users to create models without writing code.

End-to-end data analytics and AI workflows

Since RapidMiner was acquired by Altair in 2022, the vendor has continued to grow and improve its no-code AI app-building features, which allow non-technical users to create applications without writing software. The company also offers a no-code MLOps solution that uses a containerized approach. As a sign of the times, users can build models using a visual, code-based, or automated approach, depending on their preference.

Unified AI orchestration solution provider

Founded in 2013, Domino Data Lab offers both comprehensive AIOps and MLOps (machine learning operations) solutions through its platform technology. With its enterprise AI platform, users can easily manage their data, software, apps, APIs, and other infrastructural elements in a unified ecosystem. Users have the option to work with hybrid or multicloud orchestration, and they can also choose between a SaaS or self-managed approach. Domino Data Lab has partnered with Nvidia to provide a faster development environment, so expect more innovation from them soon.

To learn how todays software developers are finding ways to work faster, see the eWeek video: Domino Data Labs Jack Parmer on Code First Data Science

AI-optimized data lakehouses and infrastructure

Founded in 2013, Databricks offers an enterprise data intelligence platform that supports the flexible data processing needed to create successful AI and ML deployments; think of this data solution as the crucial building block of artificial intelligence. Through its innovative data storage and management technology, Databricks ingests and preps data from myriad sources. Its data management and data governance tools work with all major cloud players. The company is best known for its integration of the data warehouse (where the data is processed) and the data lake (where the data is stored) into a data lakehouse format.

Interested in the relationship between AI and Data? See the eWeek video: Databrickss Chris DAgostino on AI and Data Management

AI solutions for graphic designers and creatives

Adobe is a SaaS company that primarily offers marketing and creative tools to its users. The company has begun to enhance all of these products with AI solutions, including Adobe Firefly, a robust generative AI tool and assistant that helps users personalize marketing assets, edit visual assets for better quality, and generally create creative content at scale across different Adobe suite products. In late 2023, Adobe expanded its AI capabilities through its acquisition of Rephrase.ai, a text-to-video studio solution.

Drag-and-drop approach to data and AI modeling

A prime example of a mega theme driving AI, Alteryxs goal is to make AI models easier to build. The goal is to abstract the complexity and coding involved with deploying artificial intelligence. The platform enables users to connect data sources to automated modeling tools through a drag-and-drop interface, allowing data professionals to create new models more efficiently. Users grab data from data warehouses, cloud applications, and spreadsheets, all in a visualized data environment. Alteryx was founded in 1997.

Learn about the major trend toward enabling wider access to data by watching the eWeek video: Alteryxs Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of Data Analytics

A conversational approach to generative content

Inflection AI labels itself as an AI studio that is looking to create advanced applied AI that can be used for more challenging use casesWhile it has hinted at other projects in the works, its primary product right now is Pi, a conversational AI that is designed to take a personalized approach to casual conversations. Pi can be accessed through pi.ai as well as iOS and Android apps. The company was founded by many former leaders from DeepMind, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta, though several of these leaders have since left to work in the new Microsoft AI division of Microsoft. Its truly up in the air how this change will impact the company and Pi, though they expect to release an API in the near future.

Leading provider of AI for public sector use cases

Scale is an AI company that covers a lot of ground with its products and solutions, giving users the tools to build, scale, and customize AI modelsincluding generative AI modelsfor various use cases. The Scale Data Engine simplifies the process of collecting, preparing, and testing data before AI model development and deployment, while the Scale Generative AI Platform and Scale custom LLMs give users the ability to fine-tune generative AI to their specifications. Scale is also a leading provider of AI solutions for federal, defense, and public sector use cases in the government.

Leader in AI networking solutions

Arista Networks is a longstanding cloud computing and networking company that has quickly advanced its infrastructure and tooling to accommodate high-volume and high-frequency AI traffic. More specifically, the company has worked on its GPU and storage connections and sophisticated network operating software. Tools like the Arista Networks 7800 AI Spine and the Arista Extensible Operating System (EOS) are leading the way when it comes to giving users the self-service capabilities to manage AI traffic and network performance.

Hybrid, cloud-agnostic data platform

Having merged with former competitor Hortonworks, Cloudera now offers the Cloudera Data Platform and the Cloudera Machine Learning solution to help data pros collaborate in a unified platform that supports AI development. The ML solutions are specifically designed to perform data prep and predictive reporting. As an example of emerging trends, Cloudera provides portable cloud-native data analytics. Cloudera was founded in 2008.

For an inside view of where data leader Cloudera is headed, see the eWeek video: Clouderas Ram Venkatesh on the Cloudera Roadmap

Leader in blockchain, Web3, and metaverse technologies

Accubits is a blockchain, Web3, and metaverse tech solutions provider that has expanded its services and projects into artificial intelligence as well. The company primarily works to support other companies in their digital transformation efforts, offering everything from technology consulting to hands-on product and AI development. The companys main AI services include support for AI product and model development, consulting for generative AI projects, solution architecting, and automation solutions.

If the AI pioneers are a mixed bag, this group of AI visionaries is heading off in an even wider array of directions. These AI startups are closer to the edge, building a new vision even as they imagine ittheyre inventing the generative AI landscape in real time, in many cases. More than any technology before, theres no roadmap for the growth of AI, yet these generative AI startups are proceeding at full speed.

Generative AI leader committed to constitutional AI

Founded by two former senior members of OpenAI, Anthropics generative AI chatbot, Claude 3, provides detailed written answers to user questions; with this most recent generation, certain aspects of multimodality have been introduced while other components of the platform have been improved. In essence, its another tool that operates like ChatGPT, but with a twist: Anthropic publicly proclaims its focus on Constitutional AI, a methodology it has developed for consistent safety, transparency, and ethicality in its models.

Leader in generative enterprise search technology

Considered one of the unicorns of the emerging generative AI scene, Glean provides AI-powered search that primarily focuses on workplace and enterprise knowledge bases. With its Workplace Search, Assistant, Knowledge Management, Work Hub, and Connectors features, business leaders can set up a self-service learning and resource management tool for employees to find important documentation and information across business applications and corporate initiatives.

Commitment to general intelligence AI assistants

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150 Top AI Companies of 2024: Visionaries Driving the AI Revolution - eWeek