Observed Signal · Feb 16, 2024 · Funding · Source: Trending Topics · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Vienna Startup Magic Raises $117M to Challenge OpenAI
Magic, a startup founded in Vienna by Eric Steinberger and Sebastian De Ro, announced it has raised $117 million in fresh funding. The round includes participation from Alphabet's growth fund CapitalG and the former GitHub CEO. Total investment in Magic now stands at approximately $145 million. The company develops AI coding assistants as a stepping stone toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), aiming to challenge OpenAI and GitHub's Copilot in code generation. Magic, which operates largely from San Francisco, plans to train its own large language models using thousands of Nvidia GPUs. Steinberger previously studied at TU Wien, Cambridge, and MIT, and worked at Facebook AI; De Ro was CTO at Austrian scale-up Firestart. Early investor ROI Ventures believes Magic's code base could challenge OpenAI's by 2024.
Significant $117M funding round for a Vienna-founded AI startup backed by Alphabet's CapitalG, positioning it as a challenger to OpenAI and GitHub in AI code generation, a space increasingly relevant to marketing and business automation.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Magic raised $117 million in new funding, bringing total investment to approximately $145 million.
- Alphabet's growth fund CapitalG and the former GitHub CEO participated in the funding round.
- Magic was founded in Vienna by Eric Steinberger and Sebastian De Ro and now operates largely from San Francisco.
- Magic aims to build artificial general intelligence (AGI) through AI code generation assistants.
- Magic plans to train its own large language models on thousands of Nvidia GPUs.
Connected Companies & Entities
8 Entities mapped“arbeiten Eric Steinberger und Sebastian De Ro auch an AGI ... über ihr in Wien gegründetes Startup Magic...”
“Magic will nicht bloß einen OpenAI-Klon bauen ... ein eigenes LLM bauen, das selbst OpenAI herausfordern könnte...”
“sondern auch der Growth Fund CapitalG von Alphabet...”
“sondern auch der Growth Fund CapitalG von Alphabet...”
“gilt in einem ersten Schritt als größter Herausforderer der Microsoft-Tochter GitHub...”
“GPUs, das sind die meist von Chip-Riesen Nvidia stammenden Graphic Processing Units...”
“größter Herausforderer der Microsoft-Tochter GitHub...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
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