CDL-San Sebastian
Artificial Intelligence
For founders pursuing commercial opportunities driven by applied and frontier artificial intelligence.
The CDL-San Sebastián Artificial Intelligence Stream brings together experienced exited entrepreneurs, leading scientists, and active investors to support ventures building differentiated AI technologies with clear paths to real-world impact.
We focus on companies advancing AI across key areas such as:
- AI for quantum systems (e.g. error correction, hardware optimization)
- Foundation models and LLM ecosystems (development, optimization, deployment)
- Edge AI and embedded systems (efficient, on-device intelligence)
- AI for infrastructure and compute (data center and resource optimization)
- Distributed and federated AI (privacy-preserving and decentralized systems)
- AI security and reliability (robust, safe, and trustworthy models)
- Synthetic data generation
- Green AI and efficiency
- AI agents and autonomous systems
CDL startups work closely with mentors to sharpen objectives, prioritize resources, accelerate product-market fit, raise capital, and engage with experts at the forefront of AI research and commercialization.
The AI stream at CDL-San Sebastián focuses on ventures building both applied and frontier artificial intelligence technologies with strong technical differentiation and clear paths to real-world impact.
We are particularly interested in companies that push the boundaries of AI capabilities while remaining grounded in scalable, commercially viable use cases. This includes innovations across model development, infrastructure, deployment, and responsible AI systems.
Our approach prioritizes ventures that can demonstrate a defensible advantage, whether through novel technology, proprietary data, unique architectures, or integration into critical industry workflows.
Who Should Apply?
We prioritize ventures that demonstrate:
- Strong technical innovation with clear differentiation
- Scalability, both technically and commercially
- Clear use cases with identifiable customers or markets
- Founder-market fit, especially in deep technical domains
- Potential for outsized impact, aligned with CDL’s mission
We are particularly well-suited for early-stage, deep-tech companies that benefit from hands-on mentorship across product, go-to-market, and fundraising.
Innovation Areas
1. AI for Quantum Systems
We support ventures applying AI to advance quantum technologies.
This includes improving performance, stability, and scalability of quantum systems through:
- Error correction and noise reduction
- Hardware optimization and calibration
- Control systems and experimental design
2. Foundation Models & LLM Ecosystem
We are interested in companies building and enabling the next generation of foundation models.
Key areas include:
- Development of large language and multimodal models
- Model compression, fine-tuning, and editing
- Tooling and infrastructure for deployment, scaling, and monitoring
3. Edge AI & Embedded Systems
We look for ventures enabling AI to run efficiently outside the cloud.
This includes:
- On-device AI for environments with limited or no connectivity
- Highly optimized, lightweight models
- Applications across IoT, mobility, aerospace, and distributed systems
4. AI for Infrastructure & Compute
We support companies using AI to improve the performance and efficiency of compute systems.
Examples include:
- Optimization of data centers and cloud infrastructure
- Workload management and resource allocation
- Reducing cost and latency of AI systems at scale
5. Distributed & Federated AI
We are interested in new paradigms for training and deploying AI in decentralized environments.
This includes:
- Federated learning systems
- Privacy-preserving model training
- Distributed data architectures and collaborative AI
6. AI Security & Reliability
Ensuring AI systems are safe, robust, and trustworthy is a core priority.
We support ventures working on:
- Model security and protection against adversarial attacks
- Preventing model leakage and misuse
- Improving reliability, alignment, and consistency of outputs
7. Synthetic Data Generation
We look for companies developing new ways to generate high-quality data for training AI systems.
This includes:
- Synthetic dataset creation for scarce or sensitive domains
- Data augmentation and simulation environments
- Improving model performance through better data pipelines
8. Green AI & Efficiency
We prioritize solutions that reduce the environmental and computational cost of AI.
Areas of interest include:
- Energy-efficient model architectures
- Model compression and optimization techniques
- Sustainable infrastructure and compute strategies
9. AI Agents & Autonomous Systems
We support ventures building autonomous AI systems capable of executing complex tasks.
This includes:
- AI agents that can reason, plan, and act across environments
- Multi-agent systems and orchestration layers
- Applications in enterprise workflows and decision-making
AI is entering a new phase, where performance, efficiency, and reliability matter as much as raw capability. CDL San Sebastián aims to support the founders building this next generation of AI systems, combining technical excellence with real-world impact.