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Runway, a startup developing a range of generative AI models for media production, including video-generating models, has raised $308 million in a Series D funding round.<\/p>\n
General Atlantic led the round, which had participation from Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Nvidia, SoftBank, and others. The fresh capital will be put toward AI research and hiring, Runway said in a press release<\/a>, as well as toward expanding Runway\u2019s Runway Studios film and animation production arm. <\/p>\n To date, Runway has raised $536.5 million, according to Crunchbase<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cToday marks an important milestone as Runway announces a significant next step towards our goal of creating a new media ecosystem with world simulators,\u201d the company wrote in the press release. \u201c[Our recent] advancements aren\u2019t merely incremental improvements; they form the foundation for an entirely new approach to media \u2014 an ecosystem built on AI systems that can simulate our world.\u201d<\/p>\n Runway offers a suite of AI media tools, including video- and image-generating models. It faces stiff competition in the video generation space, including from OpenAI and Google. But the company has fought to differentiate itself,\u00a0inking a deal with a major Hollywood studio<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0earmarking millions of dollars<\/a>\u00a0to fund films using AI-produced footage.<\/p>\n This week, Runway released Gen-4<\/a>, a video-generating model that the company claims can create consistent characters, locations, and objects across scenes, maintain \u201ccoherent world environments,\u201d and regenerate elements from different perspectives and positions within scenes. With products like Gen-4 and its recently launched API for video models<\/a>, Runway hopes to hit\u00a0$300 million in annualized revenue<\/a>\u00a0this year.<\/p>\n One possible roadblock is a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0brought by artists against Runway and other generative AI companies that accuses the defendants of training their models on copyrighted artwork without permission. Runway argues that the\u00a0doctrine known as\u00a0fair use<\/a>\u00a0shields it from legal repercussions. It isn\u2019t yet clear whether the company will prevail.<\/p>\n