Inflection AI, The Year-Old Startup Behind Chatbot Pi, Raises $1.3 Billion

Backed by Microsoft, Nvidia and billionaires Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt, the startup led by ex-DeepMind leader MUSTAFA SULEYMAN is valued at 4 billion—and claims to have the world’s best Al hardware setup.

- Alex Konrad

Less than two months after the launch of their first chatbot Pi, artificial intelligence startup Inflection AI and CEO Mustafa Suleyman have raised $1.3 billion in new funding.

Microsoft, Nvidia and three of tech’s most influential billionaires led the investment in the Palo Altobased startup launched in early 2022. LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt all personally invested, with Nvidia the sole new investor among the group.

The new funding values Inflection at $4 billion, according to a source with knowledge of the transaction. Inflection said the company and Suleyman remained majority shareholders and declined further comment.

In an interview, Suleyman said that the group of mostly insiders proposed the additional investment after Inflection was “overwhelmed with offers” following the launch of Pi, its conversational chatbot launched in May. “I think people can see that it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Suleyman told Forbes. “There’s so much further to go after [Pi] validates the core thesis, which is that conversation is the new interface.”

Some details of Inflection’s new deal with Microsoft and Nvidia are, like Suleyman’s iceberg, still largely out of view. He declined to provide a breakdown of how much of the $1.3 billion raised included cash equivalents (such as computing credits) but said that a “very, very large chunk” was in dollars. “We have all the cash we need to run and operate,” he added.