Fastino trains AI models on cheap gaming GPUs and just raised $17.5M led by Khosla

Tech giants like to boast about trillion-parameter AI models that require massive and expensive GPU clusters. But Fastino is taking a different approach. The Palo Alto-based startup says it’s invented a new kind of AI model architecture that’s intentionally small and task-specific. The models are so small they’re trained with low-end gaming GPUs worth less than $100,000 in total, Fastino says. The method is attracting attention. Fastino has secured $17.5 million in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures, famously OpenAI’s first venture investor, Fastino exclusively tells TechCrunch. This brings the startup’s total funding to nearly $25 million. It raised $7 million last November in a pre-seed round led by Microsoft’s VC arm M12 and Insight Partners. “Our models are faster, more accurate, and cost a fraction to train while outperforming flagship models on specific tasks,” says Ash Lewis, Fastino’s CEO and co-founder. Fastino has built a suite of small models that it sells to enterpris ... Read full article.