European AI Startup Aleph Alpha Secures $500 Million in Funding from Bosch, SAP, and Lidl Owner

German startup Aleph Alpha has raised $500 million in a funding round backed by companies such as Bosch, SAP, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The company, which is competing with Microsoft-backed OpenAI, has developed its own large language models and aims to promote the concept of "data sovereignty" by ensuring that data used in AI models is grounded in Europe. The funding will be used for research, product development, and commercialization. Aleph Alpha's models can already communicate in multiple languages, including German, French, Spanish, Italian, and English. The investment highlights the growing interest in AI startups and the development of advanced AI models.