With eye on self-driving cars, Samsung and NVIDIA invest $75 million in Soundhound to battle Alexa, Siri

SoundHound announced a gargantuan $75 million funding round Tuesday led by Samsung Catalyst Fund and NVIDIA with an eye on spending to better develop a rival to Google Assistan, Siri, and Alexa. If recent moves by the corporate titans are any indication, the move will have dramatic implications on the autonomous vehicle race.

SoundHound will use the funds to invest in what it calls “Collective A.I.,” which the company defines as “a powerful architecture giving users of the platform the power to bring voice-enabled AI to everyone, everywhere.” In other words, it could be a stepping stone to more fluidly allow different search and automation algorithms to work in sync.