At Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas this week, Google unveiled a wave of new features, including its next-generation AI processor, Ironwood, and the latest AI model in its Gemini lineup, Gemini 2.5 Flash.
The company also spotlighted a long list of high-profile AI startups that have committed to using Google Cloud services — among them, some of the most closely watched in the industry. As previously reported, this includes Safe Superintelligence (SSI), the new venture from OpenAI co-founder and former chief scientist Ilya Sutskever.
Other notable startups include:
- Anysphere, the company behind the wildly popular AI-powered code editor Cursor. Google says Cursor is leveraging Anthropic’s Claude models on Google Cloud. Cursor was recently valued at $10 billion, sources told. Its main competitor is GitHub Copilot — backed by Microsoft, one of Google’s primary rivals in the AI space.
- Hebbia, which uses AI to scan and analyze large documents, making it especially valuable in the legal industry. Its $130 million Series B was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Index Ventures, Google Ventures, and Peter Thiel. Google notes Hebbia is now using Gemini models.
- Magic, focused on building cutting-edge models to automate coding and research. Unsurprisingly, it chose Google Cloud for its infrastructure, especially since Alphabet’s CapitalG and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt were part of its $320 million fundraising round this year. According to Google, Magic is tapping Google Cloud for GPU resources.
- Physical Intelligence, developing foundational robotics software, backed by some of the top names in venture capital. It raised $400 million at a $2 billion pre-money valuation in November from Sequoia, Jeff Bezos, Lux Capital, and Thrive Capital. Founders include ex-Google DeepMind researchers Karol Hausman and Chelsea Finn, alongside investor Lachy Groom.
- Photoroom, one of Paris’s standout AI startups, offers AI-driven photo editing. It uses Google Cloud’s Veo 2 video generation model and Imagen 3, Google’s text-to-image generator.
- Synthesia, known for its hyper-realistic AI avatars, is also relying on Google’s models. The startup raised $180 million at a $2.1 billion valuation in January, led by NEA, with GV (formerly Google Ventures) participating.
These partnerships reinforce Google Cloud’s aggressive pursuit of dominance in AI workloads, positioning it as a strong contender against Microsoft Azure and, to a lesser extent, Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Google also announced a new partnership with Lightspeed Venture Partners, expanding its existing VC network that includes Sequoia and Y Combinator. Startups backed by these firms gain access to Google’s AI models and chips. Google stated that Lightspeed’s AI portfolio companies are now eligible for up to $150,000 in cloud credits, reinforcing Google’s commitment to onboarding the next wave of AI trailblazers.
Google also highlighted several more AI startups during the event:
- Augment Code — AI software coding agent
- Autoscience — scientific research AI agents
- Big Sur AI — personalized recommendations for e-commerce
- Captions — talking video creator and video editor
- Eon.io — autonomous enterprise backup and recovery
- fal is — text to image, and image to video
- Spot AI — AI for security cameras
- Story — blockchain for storing and licensing intellectual property
- StudyHall AI — coaches students on reading, writing, and exam prep
- Ubie — Japanese healthcare symptom analyzer
- Udio — music creation
- Ufonia — agent for clinical healthcare consultations with patients
- Wagestream — financial well-being platform built by charities
- Wondercraft — GenAI realistic audio content
