TRACK A: Hardware & Systems: Investor Panel - Barriers to Adoption for Novel AI Hardware & Where AI Acceleration Start Ups Can Still Capture Market Share | Kisaco Research

As customer success stories from AI accelerator start ups starting to proliferate, and traction starting to ramp up, it is starting to become clear which ML workloads are most amenable to domain specific architectures, and which market sectors are most likely to adopt novel AI acceleration technologies. 

With one company still retaining the majority of market share in the datacenter, and the edge currently a complete wilderness, it might still be a difficult time to launch a new accelerator company. But opportunities for capturing market share across the cloud-edge continuum definitely exist! In the world of HPC, certain ML and non-ML scientific workloads have seen extraordinary, demonstrable speed ups on novel ML systems architectures, and the scientific community only sees demand for acceleration of these types of workloads growing. At the edge some AI chip companies are already shipping in volume, while new applications emerge continuously.

This panel will look at what it takes to make it in the AIHW game, what might shift the balance of power in the datacenter, and how companies can find a niche at the edge. 

Session Topics: 
Enterprise AI
Novel AI Hardware
Speaker(s): 

Author:

Brett Simpson

Co-Founder & Senior Analyst
Arete Research

Brett is a co-founder of Arete (formed in 2000) and is based in the firm's London office. He focuses on the global semiconductor component sector. Brett is a regular public speaker at industry events and after 17 years looking at the sector, has a wealth of experience to draw on. Prior to Arete, Brett spent two years at Goldman Sachs in an equity analyst role, specialising in European technology following three years with Ericsson UK, working in business development, covering all aspects of wireline and wireless telecom infrastructure.

Brett Simpson

Co-Founder & Senior Analyst
Arete Research

Brett is a co-founder of Arete (formed in 2000) and is based in the firm's London office. He focuses on the global semiconductor component sector. Brett is a regular public speaker at industry events and after 17 years looking at the sector, has a wealth of experience to draw on. Prior to Arete, Brett spent two years at Goldman Sachs in an equity analyst role, specialising in European technology following three years with Ericsson UK, working in business development, covering all aspects of wireline and wireless telecom infrastructure.

Author:

Gayathri Radhakrishnan

Partner
Hitachi Ventures

Gayathri is currently Partner at Hitachi Ventures. Prior to that, she was with Micron Ventures, actively investing in startups that apply AI to solve critical problems in the areas of Manufacturing, Healthcare and Automotive. She brings over 20 years of multi-disciplinary experience across product management, product marketing, corporate strategy, M&A and venture investments in large Fortune 500 companies such as Dell and Corning and in startups. She has also worked as an early stage investor at Earlybird Venture Capital, a premier European venture capital fund based in Germany. She has a Masters in EE from The Ohio State University and MBA from INSEAD in France. She is also a Kauffman Fellow - Class 16.

Gayathri Radhakrishnan

Partner
Hitachi Ventures

Gayathri is currently Partner at Hitachi Ventures. Prior to that, she was with Micron Ventures, actively investing in startups that apply AI to solve critical problems in the areas of Manufacturing, Healthcare and Automotive. She brings over 20 years of multi-disciplinary experience across product management, product marketing, corporate strategy, M&A and venture investments in large Fortune 500 companies such as Dell and Corning and in startups. She has also worked as an early stage investor at Earlybird Venture Capital, a premier European venture capital fund based in Germany. She has a Masters in EE from The Ohio State University and MBA from INSEAD in France. She is also a Kauffman Fellow - Class 16.

Author:

Karthee Madasamy

Founder & Managing Partner
MFV Partners

Karthee Madasamy

Founder & Managing Partner
MFV Partners

Author:

Samir Kumar

GM & Managing Director
M12
Samir is a managing director at M12, leading investments globally where artificial intelligence or machine learning is a key point of leverage.
He also stewards the fund’s Vanguard Bets investment category—startups aiming for breakthroughs that will result in generational shifts in the technology landscape. Samir’s other investment focuses include quantum computing, robotics, autonomous systems, transportation and silicon—especially for AI. Samir manages a team developing theses for new technology areas and oversees the fund’s technical and scientific advisory board.
Prior to joining M12, Samir was a senior director of business development and product management in Qualcomm’s corporate R&D division. There, he led early-stage product validation, partnerships, acquisitions, and strategy for embedded machine learning, computer vision and heterogeneous computing. Samir started his career at Microsoft, where he spent several years leading product management and product planning efforts for enterprise mobility before joining Palm and Samsung.
Samir is a regular conference speaker on his investment focus areas. He has served on or moderated panels of VCs and subject matter experts at LDV Vision Summit, tinyML Summit, and Cybersec&AI Connected.

Samir Kumar

GM & Managing Director
M12
Samir is a managing director at M12, leading investments globally where artificial intelligence or machine learning is a key point of leverage.
He also stewards the fund’s Vanguard Bets investment category—startups aiming for breakthroughs that will result in generational shifts in the technology landscape. Samir’s other investment focuses include quantum computing, robotics, autonomous systems, transportation and silicon—especially for AI. Samir manages a team developing theses for new technology areas and oversees the fund’s technical and scientific advisory board.
Prior to joining M12, Samir was a senior director of business development and product management in Qualcomm’s corporate R&D division. There, he led early-stage product validation, partnerships, acquisitions, and strategy for embedded machine learning, computer vision and heterogeneous computing. Samir started his career at Microsoft, where he spent several years leading product management and product planning efforts for enterprise mobility before joining Palm and Samsung.
Samir is a regular conference speaker on his investment focus areas. He has served on or moderated panels of VCs and subject matter experts at LDV Vision Summit, tinyML Summit, and Cybersec&AI Connected.
Session Job Focus: