Nicolas Sauvage is betting on the boring parts of AI

techcrunch.com May 5, 2026

Nicolas Sauvage is betting on the boring parts of AI

Curated by Shubham · TechCapsules · May 5, 2026

AI-summarised brief · reviewed before publication

Nicolas Sauvage, founder of TDK Ventures, believes that the best investments in AI take four years to prove themselves. He has been testing this theory since 2019, when he founded the corporate venture arm of Japanese electronics giant TDK. Sauvage's highest-profile investment is AI chip startup Groq, valued at $6.9 billion after a recent funding round. He saw opportunity in Groq's focus on inference, the computational heavy lifting that happens in AI model responses.

💡 Why It Matters

· Sauvage's approach to investing in AI highlights the importance of long-term thinking in the tech industry.
· By focusing on the often-overlooked "boring" parts of AI, such as inference, he has been able to identify high-growth opportunities that others may have missed.

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