AI startups swap independence for Big Tech’s deep pockets

Even ChatGPT's creator OpenAI is locked in a relationship with Microsoft, the world's biggest company by market capitalisation. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: It’s the case of the vanishing startup: some of Silicon Valley’s most promising names in the fast-developing generative AI space are being gobbled up by or tied to the hip of US tech giants.

Short on funds, in the past few months promising companies like Inflection AI or Adept have seen founders and key executives quietly exit the stage to join the world's dominant tech companies through discrete transactions.