Startups in the field of artificial intelligence research are booming

The big news yesterday was Google’s plan to do just that Exploding its traditional research In favor of an AI-powered experience — but Google isn’t the only company planning the next generation of discoverability.

this morning, Bloomberg has news From Andreessen-backed Exa Labs, which raised $250 million at a $2.5 billion valuation to go after the same market. They are part of a wave of startups all pursuing AI, which has quietly become one of the most attractive targets in consumer AI.

From Bloomberg:

Exa is part of a wave of startups vying to disrupt the search industry, including Tavily, TinyFish, and Parallel Web Systems. Led by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Parallel recently raised $100 million at a $2 billion valuation in a round led by venture firm Sequoia Capital, according to the Wall Street Journal.

At the same time, we are also seeing traditional technology platforms e.g Amazon, LinkedIn and Reddit They are looking to AI to revamp their search and discoverability features – so there will be plenty of potential acquirers if any of the startups start looking to sell.

The biggest competitor is ChatGPT, which still owns the interface layer and, prior to Google’s launch, handled the vast majority of AI-powered searches taking place on a given day. But OpenAI can’t make search a priority, and Google has an advertising business to protect, which could leave room for a smaller lab like Exa or Parallel to carve out a niche for itself.