Aleph Alpha Raises $27M to Rival OpenAI

A New Challenger Emerges in the Open-Source AI Landscape

Following Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, the path is becoming clearer for new companies to enter the open-source AI arena. A German firm is now aiming to establish itself as a significant player, with the goal of replicating the success achieved by the GPT-3 AI model.

Aleph Alpha Secures Series A Funding

German AI startup Aleph Alpha has successfully raised €23 million (approximately $27 million) in a Series A funding round. This round was co-led by Earlybird VC, Lakestar, and UVC Partners.

Having previously secured €5.3 million in seed funding from LEA Partners, 468 Capital, and Cavalry Ventures in November 2020, Aleph Alpha’s total funding now amounts to €28.3 million ($33.3 million).

Company Origins and Focus

Founded in 2019 by Jonas Andrulis and Samuel Weinbach, Aleph Alpha is headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany.

The company’s core focus lies in researching, developing, and deploying large AI systems geared towards achieving generalizable AI. They are creating AI models comparable to GPT-3, encompassing text, vision, and strategic capabilities.

Platform and Accessibility

Aleph Alpha intends to launch a public API. This will allow both public and private sector organizations to conduct their own AI experiments and create innovative business applications.

The team emphasizes a strong dedication to supporting open-source communities, like Eleuther.AI, and fostering academic collaborations.

European Values and Ethical Considerations

Aleph Alpha is committed to upholding “European values and ethical standards.” They aim to promote fairer access to cutting-edge AI research, addressing concerns about the increasing monopolization and lack of transparency within the field. This initiative represents a deliberate positioning within the global AI development community.

A clear emphasis on the “European Union” perspective is evident in their approach.

A Sovereign EU-Based Infrastructure

Aleph Alpha positions itself as a “sovereign EU-based compute infrastructure” for European public and private sectors. This means they intend to operate firmly within the framework of EU law, including GDPR and relevant regulations.

This strategy could establish them as a secure “Fortress Europe” for AI technology.

Statements from Leadership

Jonas Andrulis, CEO and founder of Aleph Alpha, stated: “Aleph Alpha’s mission is to enable the accessibility, usability and integration of large, European multilanguage and multimodal AI models following the likes of GPT-3 and DALL-E, driving innovation for the explainability, alignment and integration. The funds significantly accelerate the process of bringing the latest generation of AI technology into application and secure the digital sovereignty for public and private sector partners in Europe and beyond.”

Dr. Hendrik Brandis, co-founder and partner at Earlybird, also commented on the investment.

Dr. Klaus Hommels from Lakestar added: “The latest advances toward artificial general intelligence — non-domain specific autonomous systems delivering task performance beyond human capabilities — especially in the domain of large language models, provides us with glimpses of AI’s tremendous promise for the future. We believe Europe has to step up its game to secure access to technologies with such vast and profound transformational potential. We are impressed by the results Aleph Alpha has delivered to date. We believe Aleph Alpha has the right people and ambition to deliver generalizing AI models that are as innovative as their U.S. and Chinese counterparts.”