Deepak Gupta

$1M+ in cloud + AI credits

AI-First Seed (Series A-track) Playbook

Compute-heavy AI startup. Target: $1M+ in cloud + AI credits.

AI-first founders, seed to early Series A, with a partner network.

If you're building on foundation models or AI-native products and have a VC or accelerator, this is the highest-leverage sequence. Get your partner codes before applying, the jump between tiers is entirely gated on them.

1
AWS Activate
Up to $100,000 ($300,000 for AI)
Portfolio: $100K via Org ID. AI tier: $300K if building foundation models.
2
Google for Startups Cloud Program
Up to $200,000 (or $350,000 for AI-first)
AI tier: up to $350K over 2 years + Vertex Model Garden credits.
3
Vercel for Startups
Up to $30K (standard) / $216K + $8M partner access (AI Accelerator)
AI Accelerator: $216K + $8M partner access (cohort, Feb window).
4
Anthropic Startup Program
$25,000+ in Claude credits
Partner tier via VC referral: $5K–$25K Claude credits.
5
OpenAI for Startups
$2,500 (Ramp) / $1,000 (Researcher) / invitation-only higher tiers
VC-backed path if your partner has allocation; otherwise Ramp $2.5K.
6
MongoDB for Startups
$5,000+ Atlas credits + Voyage AI tokens
$5K+ Atlas + Voyage AI tokens for RAG.
7
NVIDIA Inception
Free program, value in partnerships, pricing, VC exposure
Free ecosystem access + VC Alliance + GTC visibility.
8
Cloudflare for Startups
Up to $250,000 in Cloudflare credits
Up to $250K, edge AI + domain protections.
9
Mercury (Raise + Perks Bundle)
$200,000+ in partner credits
Banking + Raise community.
10
Brex
$350,000+ in partner discounts
Corporate card + Marketplace ($350K+, incl. $2.5K OpenAI).
11
Ramp
$350,000+ in partner perks
Second card for negotiated vendor contracts and OpenAI credits.