SoundHound to Advance AI to Beat Tech Giants

As artificial intelligence begins to touch everything humans do, SoundHound Inc. is prepared to go up against tech giants such as Amazon Inc. (AMZN), Alphabet Corp.'s Google (GOOGL) and others to carve out its own niche. SoundHound, best known for its music recognition app, recently raised $75 million from backers like Nvidia Inc., Samsung Inc. and others to have device makers use tools that are built by SoundHound, rather then building the tools themselves. News of the funding was reported by Bloomberg and others. The $75 million funding round--which would be SoundHound's fifth according to Crunchbase--would value the company at roughly $800 million according to Pitchbook. SoundHound is trying to position its technology as being a gateway for device makers to add voice-enabled technology, allowing users to speak to their devices, similar to what Amazon has done with its Echo line of speakers and Google has done with its Google Home smart speaker.