White House's $1B AI Initiative Highlights 3 Public Companies

The White House announced a $1-billion pledge Wednesday for funding artificial intelligence and quantum research institutes. The money is intended to be used to establish 12 new research institutions.

What You Need to Know: The new funding from the government aims to ensure that every sector of the U.S. economy is engaged with AI and quantum information science, or QIS.

The program is the “nation’s largest single investment in AI to date.” The areas highlighted in the funding announcement were agriculture, climate research, machine learning, education and chemistry.

The National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Energy are participating. 

Three publicly traded companies were mentioned by the White House and all have a major presence in AI and/or QIS. 

IBM's AI, Quantum Background: IBM IBM has been a leader in both AI and quantum research, and is now working on decreasing the amount of money and time it takes to get a drug to the market using its AI platform.

IBM recently partnered with Workday Inc WDAY to launch an AI solution for workers returning to the office, Workday Adaptive Planning, which is intended to help with facility management and contact tracing.

The company’s IBM Watson supercomputer, which competed on "Jeopardy" in 2011, has been at the forefront of many AI initiatives.

IBM recently said that it hit a quantum computing milestone, reaching a quantum volume of 64. The company’s latest progress in QIS will likely be available on future releases of IBM Cloud Software Services.

IBM is slated to contribute runtime on its quantum computers for the White House initiative. IBM’s Cloud and Cognitive segment is its second-biggest revenue producer.

Microsoft Pushes Further In AI: Microsoft Corporation MSFT uses an AI platform to help with many different markets.

The company is experienced in quantum technology, believing it can help complete highly complex calculations quicker on items that would take current computers billions of years.

Azure Quantum is now available in limited preview for customers. Microsoft is set to contribute personnel and materials for the White House project.

Deere Uses AI To Help Farmers: After years of simply selling tractors to farmers, Deere & Company DE has shifted to using technology to create better products and solutions.

The company acquired NAVCOM back in 1999 to help improve GPS signals. In 2017, the company acquired Blue River for $305 million.

Blue River relies on AI for devices like its See and Spray, which can reduce weeds by 50%. AI in agriculture is a growing market expected to go from $852 million in 2019 to $8.4 billion in 2030, according to a recent P&S Intelligence report. 

What’s Next: Some have called for the U.S. government to spend more on AI and quantum research. The Stanford Institute wants to see $120 billion spent over the next five years.

The Trump administration committed to doubling funding to $2.2 billion in 2022.

The European Union has committed to spending $1.69 billion to invest in AI in 2020. Other countries continue to allocate funding to these technologies, which are expected to see huge growth in the future.