DEEPCORE Inc. (“DEEPCORE”), an AI-focused incubator backed by SoftBank Group Corp. and based in Japan, today announced a collaboration with NVIDIA Corporation (“NVIDIA”) to support and develop young and talented entrepreneurs in the AI field.
DEEPCORE is an AI-focused incubator that cultivates young and talented entrepreneurs in the AI field, especially in the field of deep learning. DEEPCORE will open the community and co-working space “KERNEL” (in Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo), and build an AI technology-driven community that supports startups and enables joint projects with companies. DEEPCORE will also invest in promising early stage AI startups through its fund to support their growth.
NVIDIA’s GPU computing and deep learning technology platforms have been a catalyst for the explosive evolution of modern AI.
This collaboration will enable KERNEL members with entrepreneurial aspirations to benefit from NVIDIA’s comprehensive backing and support, including access to AI infrastructure, training, technical support and general business consulting for startups.
Support from NVIDIA
– AI computing platform
KERNEL members will use NVIDIA GPUs based on Volta, the world’s most advanced GPU architecture, and NVIDIA GPU Cloud (“NGC”) to support R&D and project implementation. NGC provides a comprehensive catalog of deep learning software containers that take full advantage of NVIDIA GPUs. These optimized containers will run on the NVIDIA GPUs installed on-premises at KERNEL. Conversely, members working outside of KERNEL can also enjoy full access to GPU computing resources via NGC’s support for popular cloud service providers.
– NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute
Through the Deep Learning Institute (“DLI”), NVIDIA has provided tens of thousands of researchers and developers with practical training in the latest AI tools and technologies, showing how deep learning can be applied to fields ranging from autonomous vehicles and finance to health care and web services. Support for KERNEL members includes access to on-demand DLI training courses as well as hands-on workshops led by certified instructors from NVIDIA and its partners.
– Technical support for KERNEL members
NVIDIA will provide technical support to operate the AI computing platform for KERNEL as well as optimization to accelerate deep learning algorithms which will run on it. Also, NVIDIA engineers will work closely with KERNEL members for technical consulting on individual projects.
– Inception Program
NVIDIA’s Inception program is dedicated to nurturing ground-breaking startups that are revolutionizing industries with advances in AI and data science. The program helps startups during critical stages of product development, prototyping and deployment. NVIDIA has established partnerships with nearly 2,800 startups around the world, including nearly 100 in Japan.
Innovative startups from KERNEL can apply to join this program and take advantage of business matching through NVIDIA’s worldwide ecosystem so they can start their AI business effectively. Partners will gain early access to the very latest GPU hardware and software, along with benefits such as hardware grants and training with deep learning experts.
“Artificial intelligence has enormous potential for improving products and services in Japan, which can accelerate our economic competitiveness and boost the quality of life for our citizens,” said Masataka Osaki, Vice President of Corporate Sales and NVIDIA Japan Country Manager. “By combining NVIDIA’s world-leading deep learning platform with the resources of SoftBank’s AI incubator DEEPCORE, we’ll inspire the best and brightest innovators to launch exciting AI startups that will put Japan at the forefront of AI leadership.”
“We are very pleased to collaborate with NVIDIA, world leader in the field of deep learning, to develop entrepreneurs together,” said Katsumasa Niki, President and CEO of DEEPCORE. “Deep learning is a technology which will transform every industry in the future. During this transformative era, we aim to bring about disruptive innovations in the world by cultivating young and talented AI entrepreneurs. With NVIDIA’s support, we can create the most-advanced environment to accelerate this.”
About DEEPCORE
DEEPCORE is an AI-focused incubator that cultivates entrepreneurs who aspire to change the world with technology. By fostering entrepreneurs and building an ecosystem, DEEPCORE aims to be a “CORE” that brings disruptive innovations into the world. /en/
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA‘s invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined modern computer graphics and revolutionized parallel computing. More recently, GPU deep learning ignited modern AI — the next era of computing — with the GPU acting as the brain of computers, robots and self-driving cars that can perceive and understand the world. More information at http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/.