<p><strong><span class="legendSpanClass"><span class="xn-location">PALO ALTO</span></span></strong> &#8212; AI platform Chai announced it has closed a strategic investment with CoreWeave, a specialized cloud provider of large-scale GPU-accelerated workloads.</p>
<p>The deal caps Chai&#8217;s valuation at <span class="xn-money">$450 million</span> and follows several months on from Chai&#8217;s pre-seed round in which it raised <span class="xn-money">$2 million</span> to further the company&#8217;s mission of creating a more open and democratic AI platform.</p>
<p>CoreWeave&#8217;s strategic investment in Chai will go towards powering one of the first large-scale AI language model competitions, where competitors submit language models to compete for user engagement in Chai&#8217;s popular entertainment app. Winners in the competition are rewarded with cash prizes and the prestige of the title.</p>
<p>Chai has also deployed its service on top of CoreWeave&#8217;s infrastructure, meaning every message sent on the platform goes through CoreWeave&#8217;s cloud.</p>
<p>&#8220;CoreWeave has the best insight into the inner workings of our business out of everyone&#8221;, said Chai CEO <span class="xn-person">William Beauchamp</span>. &#8220;As our user base continues to grow, so will our demand for CoreWeave&#8217;s infrastructure offerings&#8221;.</p>
<p>Chai said it is competing with Open AI and other deep-pocketed companies for top talent in the AI field. Chai says it is paying software engineers total compensation up to $875,000 including $400,000 base salary and $475,000 in company equity.</p>

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