A new program for AI startups and small businesses was revealed at the Google Cloud Next 2024 conference in Las Vegas.

The initiative combines the Nvidia Inception program and the Google for Startups Cloud Program to provide additional benefits, such as cloud credits and support, to assist startups with their AI projects.

Nvidia wants to attract more startups to its global Inception program. Startups can get access to Google Cloud infrastructure and credits, including up to $350,000 for AI-focused businesses. The program already supports over 18,000 startups.

Google for Startups Cloud Program members can join Nvidia Inception to gain access to technical knowledge, course credits from the Nvidia Deep Learning Institute, Nvidia hardware and software, and other benefits. Inception also has Capital Connect, a platform that connects entrepreneurs with venture capital firms interested in their industry.

In addition, Google revealed the Axion series of Arm processors for its cloud services, becoming the latest corporate behemoth to produce its own unique Arm-based chips. Graviton processors have been available via Amazon Web Services since 2018, and Microsoft introduced the Cobalt 100, an Arm chip, last autumn.

Google has already experimented with bespoke silicon. In order to expedite its own workloads, it has been using tensor processing units (TPUs) since 2015. In 2018, it introduced a video coding unit (VCU) for video transcoding. But this will be its first custom silicon that interacts with customers.