Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures Bets Big on AI: Investments, Insights, and Future Outlook

Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures backs Fei-Fei Li's World Labs in continued AI push | TechCrunch

The startup, founded by Li, the Stanford professor dubbed the "Godmother of AI," has already raised $230 million from investors including a16z, NEA, and Radical Ventures, valuing the company at over $1 billion. It aims to develop "large world models" that will be able to understand and interact with the 3D world, and is targeting game companies and movie studios as its first customers -- the latter an area where a Hollywood actor-turned-investor could have input. Announced last year, Sound Ventures' $265 million AI fund has invested in various large language model companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face. Of note, Kutcher said today that the firm hasn't yet sold any of its OpenAI shares -- a confirmation that these investors believe the company will continue to get even bigger. The team is also interested in startups working to bring AI technology to a new physical form factor or possibly, a new OS. "I don't know that the existing form factors that we have, or the existing operating systems that we have for hardware are optimized for [AI], but so we're really curious about the space," said Oseary. He mentioned that Sound Ventures had met with Humane, the makers of the AI pin, two years ago, and had invested in Rabbit, the AI hardware startup co-founded by Jesse Lyu. "The reason we got really excited about what Jesse was building is because of the Large Action Model component. So we actually look at the hardware as almost being irrelevant over time -- the form factor didn't matter," explained Epstein, speaking about Sounds Ventures' interest in the combination of AI and hardware. "Maybe today it looks like a dongle that kind of looks like your phone, but tomorrow it looks like something else, and eventually it's irrelevant," she continued. "But this software is... learning our preferences and can take action on our behalf. And in fact, there's a moment in time where a company like that could actually be founded and potentially disrupt a player like Apple," Epstein said. "It was less of a hardware play for us. We really looked at it as investing in another foundation model," she added. The VC firm is also interested in investing in the new AI device being built by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive, in collaboration with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In fact, Kutcher said that they had "had a conversation with Jony today," though TechCrunch understands a term sheet has not yet been signed. "Somebody's going to have a breakthrough in this space and it's going to be really helpful and really profound for all of us," said Kutcher.

Ashton Kutcher explains why he's betting on AI, but not trying to pick a 'winner' | TechCrunch

Ashton Kutcher, co-founder of Sound Ventures, believes that every company is going to become an AI company, but that there might not be a winner in the space. The actor and investor spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday alongside Sound co-founder Guy Oseary and partner Effie Epstein to detail what the firm is looking for in founders and startups, and how they believe foundational AI companies are setting the stage for the future. "Foundation layer AI companies are going to be some of the most valuable companies that have ever been created in the history of humankind," Kutcher said. He said it's easy to underestimate how big of a deal AI is, and that he believes foundational AI models are going to be the foundation of everything to come. "There will not be a company in the world that is not, in some way, shape or form, using AI in the future," Kutcher said. "So every company is going to be an AI company. And it's our thesis that whether it's open source AI, whether it's closed systems like Anthropic or OpenAI or World Labs, or whether you're building software using Magic.dev, those things are going to be the underpinnings of everything else." However, he doesn't think there will be a winner in the space. He believes that while foundational AI companies converge in some ways, they are also differentiating. "Sometimes you can get too smart and too cute and think that you can pick the winner, and there might not be a winner," Kutcher said. "It might not be in one of these monopoly spaces, because there's a lot of different people that stand up gain a lot from AI and AGI in general." While some people fear AI, Kutcher says everyone should be excited about the potential that the technology brings. "I think a lot of people were afraid of the personal computer when it first came out, and I think a lot of people were afraid of the car when it first came out, and a lot of people were afraid of the industrial world revolution when it happened," Kutcher said. "And I think this next level of innovation for humans, that humans should be very excited about the potential, because I think we're all going to be capable of doing much more than we've been capable of doing historically." Kutcher and Sound have been betting big on AI, as the firm launched a $265 million AI fund last year to invest in large language model companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face. The actor, who has known OpenAI CEO Sam Altman since he founded Loopt, shared that Altman was fine with Sound investing in several different AI companies. "We do a really good job of maintaining silos information, not sharing outside of the companies and not sharing across the companies," Kutcher said. "And we just had a sense that we believed in this space." Kutcher noted that Sound hasn't taken money off the table with OpenAI, which is now worth $157 billion. Kutcher also took time to share his advice for founders and advised them not to focus too much time on their deck, noting that he and the other Sound partners don't remember OpenAI's deck. "It's about the people and the humans that are in the building, that are building it, and the competencies that they have and why they're gonna win, and the market thesis and what the insight is, that is the breakthrough," he said. "It's not the deck. Like stop spending so much time on the deck."