With the introduction of its Omniverse platform and, most recently, Mega, an Omniverse Blueprint framework to build digital twins to run these applications, Nvidia has been stepping up its efforts to develop robots and other industrial AI applications. In order to launch the initiative, it is also investing in digital twin startups.
Using AI and 3D technology, Taiwan’s MetAI has created a model that can produce “SimReady” (simulation-ready) digital twins in a matter of minutes by transforming CAD files into usable 3D settings.
Now Nvidia is backing MetAI in its first round of funding, a $4 million seed round that becomes the chip giant’s first investment into a Taiwanese startup. Others in the round are a mix of other strategic and financial investors, including Kenmec Mechanical Engineering, Solomon Technology, SparkLabs Taiwan, Addin Ventures, and Upstream Ventures. The next wave of AI, known as generative physical AI, relies on physically accurate simulated environments to train and validate robots used in autonomous systems, to build operational AI before deployment. MetAI contends that the digital twins that it helps create will be central to that effort.
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Daniel Yu, CEO and co-founder of MetAI, stated in an interview that “digital twins have long been seen as a barrier to entry for physical AI due to the months or even years of effort required for development.”
MetAI specializes in AI-powered digital twins for automation, smart warehouses, and sophisticated semiconductor factories. Additionally, it creates artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled digital twin settings.
With a background in 3D engineering and artificial intelligence, Yu’s co-founder and CTO of MetAI, Renton Hsu, first encountered digital twins while developing enterprise AI software applications. These were used as a workable solution when clients lacked sufficient data to train their systems. After realizing that he could apply the same to 3D systems, he teamed up with Yu (who joins the startup with experience in digital transformation projects) and a third co-founder, Dave Liu (COO), to launch MetAI. Together, they developed synthetic AI and 3D solutions.
SOURCE: TECH CRUNCH
