Amazon has announced a collaboration with the University of Washington, the University of Tsukuba and NVIDIA, pledging a $25 million (c.£20m) investment over the next decade. This partnership is reportedly poised to reshape the landscape of AI research and workforce development, harnessing the combined expertise of academia, industry and government.
The partnership, unveiled at a signing ceremony at the US Department of Commerce in Washington on 9 April is part of a $110m (c.£88m) initiative focused on nurturing AI innovation in both the US and Japan. Amazon’s 10-year collaboration will support a range of initiatives, including AI research funding, post-doctoral and PhD fellowships, undergraduate summer research programmes, and entrepreneurship bootcamps.
Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist of artificial general intelligence at Amazon, remarked: “These renowned universities – the University of Washington and University of Tsukuba – are known for their world-class research and education in AI and computing… We are excited to partner with them and NVIDIA, and for the potential of this partnership to bring together experts across sectors, disciplines and countries to accelerate critical AI research, and nurture the next generation of AI talent and start-up builders.”
Building upon its legacy of funding advanced research at US universities, Amazon’s partnership with NVIDIA, spanning over 13 years, has laid the foundation for advancements in AI technology. With a keen eye on Japan’s burgeoning tech landscape, Amazon’s announcement in January 2024 to invest $15 billion (c.£12bn) into Japan’s cloud infrastructure also looks to reinforce the company’s plans to drive digital transformation.
In 2019, Amazon took a step towards promoting fairness and responsibility in AI with the launch of the Programme on Fairness in AI in partnership with the US National Science Foundation. This $21m (c.£17m) initiative has already made strides within the education sector, funding 34 university-led teams and contributing to a growing body of knowledge in ethical AI practices.
Moreover, Amazon’s technology programmes, such as the Amazon Scholars initiative and the AWS Public Sector Cloud Credit for Research, have been developed with an aim to further empower academics to bridge the gap between academia and industry seamlessly.
