Moonvalley raises $84 million to bolster AI video tools

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(Reuters) -Artificial intelligence research company Moonvalley has raised $84 million more in a funding round led by existing investor General Catalyst, it said on Monday, a week after releasing its first video AI model.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Tech heavyweights including OpenAI and Alphabet are looking to get a leg-up in the lucrative entertainment industry, as film studios seek to use generative AI to speed up content creation and cut costs.

But video and image generation tools have also led to lawsuits by major film studios against AI companies, accusing them of copyright infringement and plagiarism.

Moonvalley said the investment will help it meet enterprise demand, expand content library and build features that partners have requested.

CoreWeave, Khosla Ventures and YCombinator also invested in the round.

CONTEXT

Moonvalley last week released its first licensed AI video model for professional production.

Last month, visual effects veteran Ed Ulbrich, who worked on films such as “Titanic” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” joined Moonvalley as head of strategic growth and partnerships.

The company had raised $70 million in November last year, bringing the total funding to $154 million.

KEY QUOTE

“Our relationship provides Moonvalley with access to advanced compute resources – including the latest GPU systems,” Brannin McBee, co-founder and chief development officer for CoreWeave, said.

(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)