This week, Google hosted its Google Cloud Next conference in Las Vegas, unveiling a host of new features, including its next-generation AI processing chip, Ironwood, and its latest AI model, Gemini 2.5 Flash. The event also highlighted a significant number of AI startups that have chosen to utilize Google Cloud, featuring some of the most closely watched companies in the industry.
Among the notable startups mentioned is Safe Superintelligence (SSI), founded by OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever. Additionally, the conference showcased:
– Anysphere, the creator of the highly popular AI code editor, Cursor, which leverages Anthropic’s Claude models via Google Cloud. Recently, Cursor was valued at $10 billion, with Microsoft’s GitHub CoPilot identified as its primary competitor.
– Hebbia, known for its AI-driven document search and question-answering capabilities, particularly popular in the legal sector. It secured $130 million in its Series B funding round, led by Andreessen Horowitz alongside contributions from Index Ventures, Google Ventures, and Peter Thiel, and is utilizing Google’s Gemini models.
– Magic, focused on developing cutting-edge models for automated coding and research. The startup’s choice of Google Cloud aligns with its recent $320 million fundraising round, which featured investments from Alphabet’s CapitalG and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. They are utilizing Google Cloud’s GPU resources.
– Physical Intelligence, which is creating foundational software for robotics, boasts a distinguished lineup of co-founders, including notable investor Lachy Groom. In November, it raised $400 million at a pre-money valuation of $2 billion, backed by investors like Sequoia, Jeff Bezos, Lux Capital, and Thrive Capital, with several founders having ties to Google DeepMind.
– Photoroom, based in Paris, a hub for AI innovation in Europe, specializes in AI-driven photo editing and employs Google Cloud’s Veo 2 for video generation and Imagen 3 for text-to-image capabilities.
– Synthesia, focused on producing highly realistic AI avatars, is also utilizing various Google models. The company raised $180 million in January, achieving a valuation of $2.1 billion in a round led by NEA, with participation from GV (formerly Google Ventures).
Overall, Google Cloud is assembling an impressive roster of startups to enhance its competitiveness against Microsoft Azure and, to a lesser extent, AWS in the race for AI workloads.
Furthermore, Google announced the addition of Lightspeed to its list of VC partners alongside Sequoia and Y Combinator. Companies within Google Cloud’s partner portfolio can access its AI chips and models, with portfolio companies from Lightspeed eligible for $150,000 in cloud credits, underscoring Google’s strategy to attract more emerging startups to its platform.
