An Indian-American tech entrepreneur in his 75th year is investing $1 billion of his own fortune in the future of AI.

• Romesh Wadhwani, a 75-year-old billionaire and technology leader from Silicon Valley, is investing $1 billion of his personal fortune in the development of predictive and generative AI technology.
• In the next five years, AI will allow us to accomplish what we couldn't in the past 50 years, says the Palo Alto-based tech entrepreneur to CNBC.
• Wadhwani, who began building his AI software business in 2017, stated that differentiation in vertical niches is the strategy. He explained that focusing on horizontal AI, which was already being done by Facebook and Google, would not provide a competitive advantage.

Romesh Wadhwani, a billionaire technology leader from Silicon Valley, celebrated his 75th birthday with 100 friends, reflecting on his career achievements and wishing he were 20 years younger to experience the new, fast-paced era of artificial intelligence.

The development of AI technology is rapidly advancing, with new advancements occurring on a weekly basis. This is causing me to feel as though I am falling behind every week. The integration of Gen AI is happening at an unprecedented pace, and it will have a significant impact on every job, consumer, and company.

Wadhwani, who signed the Gates Buffet Giving Pledge to give away the majority of his wealth, has $1 billion of his fortune invested in predictive and generative AI technology. "We are going for it, transforming as a Gen AI-first company," said Wadhwani, now chairman and founder of investment firm SAIGroup and its portfolio of three enterprise AI software technology companies.

Wadhwani, from his base at Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, detailed the evolution of AI over his 53-year career, tracing its development from a theoretical concept in the 1970s to the use of robotics in the 1980s, the rise of cloud computing and increased computing power in the 1990s, and the current era of massive data availability in the 2020s.

An AI winter followed each wave, but now we are moving at lightning speed. In the next five years, we will be able to accomplish what we couldn't in the past 50 years with the help of AI.

According to Forrester, global spending on enterprise AI software will increase from $60.4 billion in 2023 to $227 billion by 2030, with GenAI capturing 55% of the market by the end of the decade. Mike Gualtieri, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, stated, "There is a sense of urgency. Businesses are concerned that a competitor will be the first to use this new AI technology for a competitive advantage."

By 2030, Forrester predicts that the use of AI software will be significantly wider, with much larger percentages among small and medium-sized businesses, compared to the current 53.5% adoption rate among large enterprises.

Shantanu Narayen, CEO and a friend of Wadhwani for several years in the Silicon Valley circle of successful Indian immigrants, commended him for being "very, very early in AI" before the current AI craze.

Wadhwani stated that SAIGroup's strategy was differentiation from the beginning. He explained that horizontal AI was already being done by Facebook and Google, making it difficult to compete with them. Instead, he chose to focus on the most valuable verticals where AI could provide the most benefits.

The stock market performance of major tech companies has been analyzed, and recent gains have been attributed to the combination of AI technology and hype surrounding it. Specifically, Nvidia has experienced a 175% increase in value since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, while Microsoft has gained nearly 50% due to its investment in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.

In 2017, Wadhwani started his AI software business, stating that the AI era for businesses was still in its early stages. SymphonyAI was formed through a series of startups and acquisitions, with a focus on retail, consumer packaged goods, financial services, manufacturing, media, and the public sector. Two more health industry-specific AI companies were added to the business. ConcertAI, launched in 2018, is targeting biotech, while RhythmX AI, rolled out in October with a $50 million investment and led by CEO Deepthi Bathina, a former chief clinical product officer at Humana, is starting as a GenAI-based platform for physicians and healthcare systems to offer personalized patient care.

Boston-based ConcertAI, which was spun off from SymphonyAI in 2018, has experienced a 35% increase in revenue to $160 million. The company's mission is to speed up cancer research and connect patients with clinical trials. CEO Jeff Elton praised the founder's vision of how AI, research, and healthcare can work together to create transformative change, and emphasized that it is not just an AI investment thesis. In 2020, ConcertAI raised $150 million in venture capital at a valuation of $1.9 billion, and has accumulated a total of $600 million in funding.

Bristol Myers Squibb, a customer of ConcertAI for five years, utilizes its software for clinical trials in oncology research. According to Jeff Conklin, who recently retired as senior vice president and chief analytics officer, ConcertAI provided a more robust and customized option for their clinical trials that was not available in the market at the time. ConcertAI's oncology research software was developed and customized with Conklin's help, marking the beginning of the company.

SymphonyAI CEO Sanjay Dhawan, a seasoned technology executive who previously led Wadhwani-backed Symphony Teleca and was brought on board as SymphonyAI CEO by Wadhwani in early 2022, announced that the company has recently achieved profitability and is on track to reach a $500 million revenue run rate for 2023, representing a 30% annual growth rate. Dhawan stated that SymphonyAI aims to go public within the next 18 to 24 months.

Wadhwani stated, "I am pleased that the original 2017 vision is being realized and the strategy is proving successful."

Gualitieri predicts that smaller vendors with domain expertise may have an advantage in moving faster than big companies. However, the field is becoming increasingly crowded, even in the verticals where SAIGroup is focused. It competes with AI enterprise software innovators on two fronts. Rivals include vertical specialists such as Actimize in fraud protection, Roche Group-acquired Flatiron in biotech, and Ansys in product design. Additionally, horizontal AI providers like publicly traded NVIDIA and Microsoft are also considered rivals. Lastly, upstarts in Gen AI such as Eric Schmidt-funded Mistral AI from France are emerging as competitors for enterprises.

Wadhwani, who receives weekly updates on high-tech advancements from his team, stated that no one could have predicted AI's ability to perform 80% of its current tasks.

The group's SaaS AI tools are utilized by customers from the U.S., Europe, and Asia, which include grocery retailers, consumer packaged goods companies, financial services, and pharmaceutical makers, as well as big company brands such as Procter & Gamble, Nationwide, and Pfizer.

Save A Lot, a supermarket chain, has chosen SymphonyAI technology to optimize its supply chain after evaluating various providers for three years. According to Jennifer Hopper, the chief information officer, SymphonyAI's data-driven retail technology stood out as the best-in-class AI solution with a comprehensive set of warehousing, vendor management, and forecasting capabilities.

Wadhwani, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, came to the U.S. from India on a fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned his Master's and PhD degrees in electrical engineering. His professors included pioneering AI research scientists Allen Newell and Herbert Simon. After college, he founded a security and energy software company called Compuguard, which was sold for $10 million in 1981 to Swiss electrical equipment maker Brown Boveri.

In 1982, he became CEO of American Robot Corporation, which was backed by Venrock, the Rockefeller family's venture fund. Despite facing intense competition from Japanese robotics manufacturers, he turned the company around by focusing on computer-aided software for manufacturers. He also returned most of the original VC investment. Wadhwani recalled working long hours, earning only $13 to $14 per hour, and struggling with discipline in the early years of his career. However, he learned about capital efficiency and how to run a company with discipline and vision.

In 1991, Wadhwani convinced his wife to relocate from Pittsburgh to Silicon Valley, where he believed he would have a better chance of success in the tech industry. He soon founded Aspect Development, a business-to-business software service. By 2002, Aspect Development was acquired by i2 Technologies, a competitor in the e-commerce sector, for $9.3 billion in stock. The two companies were then merged. Wadhwani keeps a framed Wall Street Journal article about the deal in his office, which he described as the "largest software deal ever."

In 2002, he established a private equity firm called Software Technology Group (STG) in search of new challenges. He revealed that he could have started another startup, but instead, he decided to invest in multiple startups and acquisitions. Through three funds totaling $1.8 billion, STG invested in 33 companies in the enterprise software space, with Wadhwani as the primary backer. He stated that it was an exciting and high-energy time, with no failures or shutdowns from the portfolio companies. One of the notable wins was the acquisition of software integration service Symphony Teleca for $780 million in 2015, which was sold to Harman, a specialist in audio technologies.

Wadhwani, now head of SAIGroup and its three subsidiaries, works 70-80 hours per week while still making time for leisure activities such as listening to music and reading nonfiction books. He conducts most of his calls and meetings from his mansion in the affluent city of Los Altos. Despite his accomplishments, Wadhwani does not have the same level of ambition as Elon Musk, who aims to build a trillion-dollar electric vehicle business or revolutionize space travel.

SymphonyAI has appointed three new board members, including Blythe Masters, Daniela Rus, and Todd Harbaugh, as the company prepares for a possible IPO within two years.

Wadhwani is focused on the long-term ethical development of AI technology. In April, he pledged $5 million to establish the Wadhwani Center for AI and Advanced Technologies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. The center's goal is to develop policies for AI governance that balance optimism with caution.