Shortly after Amazon's $4 billion investment in AI announcement, Visa announced a substantial investment of $100 million in companies working on generative AI technologies and applications, focusing on shaping the future of commerce and payments. This investment will be channeled through Visa Ventures, its global corporate investment branch.
Visa emphasizes its long-standing involvement in AI within the payments sector, dating back to 1993.
Additionally, Visa's venture into generative AI technologies and its commitment of $100 million will be spearheaded by Visa Ventures, the company's global corporate investment division, which has been actively involved in supporting and collaborating with pioneering companies in the payments and commerce sector since 2007.
“While much of generative AI so far has been focused on tasks and content creation, this technology will soon not only reshape how we live and work, but it will also meaningfully change commerce in ways we need to understand,” said Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy Officer of Visa, in a written statement.
David Rolf, who leads Visa Ventures at Visa, expressed enthusiasm for the potential of generative AI as a groundbreaking technology of our era.
“With generative AI’s potential to be one of the most transformative technologies of our time, we are excited to expand our focus to invest in some of the most innovative and disruptive venture-backed startups building across generative AI, commerce and payments,” said David Rolf.
Visa holds an important position in the realm of digital payments and aims to enable and facilitate transactions among consumers, businesses, financial institutions, and government bodies spanning over 200 countries and territories.
