News Summary:
- Micron Ventures announced it will invest up to $100 million in venture funding targeted at technology startups focused on artificial intelligence (AI), with twenty percent aimed at startups led by women and other underrepresented groups.
- The inaugural Micron Insight 2018 event gathered industry leaders from Amazon, BMW, Google, Qualcomm, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Visteon, along with author, cosmic explorer and MIT professor of physics, Max Tegmark, to discuss the future of AI, machine learning and deep learning.
- In a related announcement, the Micron Foundation launched a $1 million grant for universities and non-profit organizations to conduct research on AI. For more details, visit http://bit.ly/MicronFoundation.
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 10, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Micron Technology, Inc., (NASDAQ:MU) announced that it will invest up to $100 million in startups with a strong focus on AI and machine learning through its strategic investments entity, Micron Ventures. The announcement was made at the inaugural Micron Insight 2018 event where the technology industry’s top minds gathered in San Francisco to discuss the future technology landscape and how memory technology brings it to life.
Micron Insight 2018 comes as AI and machine learning continue to make headlines across the industry, and while most organizations are still in early stages of experimentation with these technologies. As companies develop more complex AI and machine learning systems and work on more advanced use cases, the hardware used to train and run those models will become increasingly important. This requires a detailed look at compute, memory and storage configurations to avoid performance and throughput bottlenecks and drive faster, better results.
“We are pleased to bring together the industry’s brightest thinkers, researchers, innovators and technologists to discuss AI, machine learning and deep learning,” said Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. “These trends are at the heart of the biggest opportunities in front of us, and increasingly require memory and storage technologies to turn vast amounts of data into insights that accelerate intelligence.”
Launched in 2006, Micron Ventures invests in technology startups aligned with Micron’s strategic interests. Micron Ventures is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs revolutionize industries with advances in AI for applications such as augmented and virtual reality and autonomous driving, while dramatically advancing foundational capabilities such as deep learning. As part of the $100 million investment, Micron will target up to $20 million to fund startups led by women and other underrepresented groups.
”Micron Ventures is focused on accelerating innovation in AI and machine learning in order to unlock the vast potential of these promising technologies to enrich human life,” said Micron Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer Sumit Sadana. “Our investments, coupled with our industry-leading portfolio of memory and storage products, technologies and capabilities, will enable these startups to realize the full potential of their innovations.”
Speakers at Micron Insight 2018
Micron Insight featured inspiring and thought-provoking conversations about the future of technology resulting from Micron executive keynotes and insightful perspectives from industry experts. Among the topics discussed were the underlying importance of hardware in advancing and driving responsible, ethical and holistic technology development for AI, machine learning and data science. The program also featured fascinating use cases in health, science, virtual reality and automotive, and an interactive Experience Zone showcasing AI applications in life, health and business.
Micron executives leading keynote presentations on the role of memory and fast storage in AI included:
- Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron President and CEO
- Sumit Sadana, Micron Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer
- Linda Somerville, Micron Corporate Vice President of Technology Strategy
Some of the industry’s foremost thinkers on AI and machine learning presented industry insights:
- Prem Natarajan, Amazon Vice President, Alexa and Natural Language Understanding
- Lili Cheng, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Artificial Intelligence and Research
- Max Tegmark, author, cosmic explorer and MIT Professor of Physics
Additionally, David Kirkpatrick, technology journalist and Techonomy founder, facilitated inspiring conversations with other industry leaders:
AI Opportunities for Consumer and Business:
- Premal Savla, NVIDIA Director of Deep Learning Product Development
- Keith Kressin, Qualcomm Senior Vice President, Product Management
- Tom Stanis, Verily Life Sciences, Head of Software Development
AI in Automotive:
- Simon Euringer, BMW Vice President, Group Technology Office USA
- Vijay Nadkarni, Visteon Global Head of Artificial Intelligence Augmented Reality
A replay of the keynote speeches and panel conversations at Micron Insight 2018 will be available tomorrow at https://www.micron.com/about/news-and-events/events/insight-2018.
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About Micron Technology, Inc.
We are an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions. Through our global brands — Micron®, Crucial® and Ballistix® — our broad portfolio of high-performance memory and storage technologies, including DRAM, NAND, NOR Flash and 3D XPoint™ memory, is transforming how the world uses information to enrich life. Backed by 40 years of technology leadership, our memory and storage solutions enable disruptive trends, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and autonomous vehicles, in key market segments like cloud, data center, networking and mobile. Our common stock is traded on the NASDAQ under the MU symbol. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc., visit www.micron.com.
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