Latest news with #Runway
The Verge
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Runway is going to let people generate video games with AI
So far, Runway is known for bringing generative AI to Hollywood. Now, the $3 billion startup is setting its sights on the gaming industry. This week, I was granted access to a new interactive gaming experience that Runway plans to make available to everyone as soon as next week, according to CEO Cristóbal Valenzuela. The consumer-facing product is currently quite barebones, with a chat interface that supports only text and image generation, but Valenzuela says that generated video games are coming later this year. He says that Runway is also in talks with gaming companies about both using its technology and accessing their datasets for training. Based on his recent conversations, Valenzuela believes the gaming industry is in a similar position to Hollywood when it was first introduced to generative AI. There was considerable resistance, but over time, AI has been gradually adopted in more areas of the production process. Valenzuela says Amazon's recent show, House of David, was made in part with Runway's technology, and that his company is working with 'pretty much every major studio' and 'most of the Fortune 100 companies.' 'If we can help a studio make a movie 40 percent faster, then we're probably gonna be able to help developers of games make games faster,' he says. 'They're waking up, and they're moving faster than I would say the studios were moving two years ago.' Naturally, I couldn't let Valenzuela get off our Zoom call without asking him about his recent acquisition talks with Zuckerberg: 'I think we have more interesting intellectual challenges being independent, and remaining independent for now.' This story was first published in Command Line.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta Tried to Buy Runway Before $14B Scale AI Bet
June 24 - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) held early talks with artificial intelligence startup Runway about a possible acquisition earlier this year, according to a Monday report confirmed by CNBC. Runway, known for its AI-driven video tools, was also recently featured on the Disruptor 50 list. However, discussions between the two companies did not move beyond the initial stage and ultimately fell through, a person familiar with the matter told the outlet. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with META. The approach came before Meta committed $14.3 billion to Scale AI in June. That deal gave Meta a 49% stake in the company, and it brought on Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang and several team members to work on Meta's internal AI products. Meta has also held similar acquisition talks with Safe Superintelligence and Perplexity AI in recent months. Although those efforts didn't result in full takeovers, some executives from those firmsincluding Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and former GitHub chief Nat Friedmanare now joining Meta's AI unit. Meta declined to comment on the reported Runway discussions. This string of outreach underlines Meta's broader strategy to scale its AI capabilities across product areas as competition intensifies among tech giants. This shows Meta's AI expansion playbook relies as much on partnerships and personnel shifts as it does on major investments. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta Tried to Buy Runway Before $14B Scale AI Bet
June 24 - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) held early talks with artificial intelligence startup Runway about a possible acquisition earlier this year, according to a Monday report confirmed by CNBC. Runway, known for its AI-driven video tools, was also recently featured on the Disruptor 50 list. However, discussions between the two companies did not move beyond the initial stage and ultimately fell through, a person familiar with the matter told the outlet. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with META. The approach came before Meta committed $14.3 billion to Scale AI in June. That deal gave Meta a 49% stake in the company, and it brought on Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang and several team members to work on Meta's internal AI products. Meta has also held similar acquisition talks with Safe Superintelligence and Perplexity AI in recent months. Although those efforts didn't result in full takeovers, some executives from those firmsincluding Safe Superintelligence CEO Daniel Gross and former GitHub chief Nat Friedmanare now joining Meta's AI unit. Meta declined to comment on the reported Runway discussions. This string of outreach underlines Meta's broader strategy to scale its AI capabilities across product areas as competition intensifies among tech giants. This shows Meta's AI expansion playbook relies as much on partnerships and personnel shifts as it does on major investments. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Facebook-parent Meta held talks with Runway before investing in Scale AI: Report
Facebook-parent Meta was in talks to acquire AI video startup Runway before finalizing its $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI , reports CNBC. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report says that the talks with Runway – known for developing AI-powered video generation tools, did not progress and were eventually dropped. The outreach was part of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg 's wider efforts to strengthen Meta's artificial intelligence portfolio. Earlier this month, Meta invested $14.3 billion in data-labeling startup Scale AI, taking a 49% stake in a deal. As part of the agreement, Scale's 28-year-old co-founder and CEO, Alexandr Wang, will join Meta to lead its new superintelligence unit, a major shift in the tech giant's AI strategy. Other than ScaleAI and Runway, the company has also shown interest in other AI startups this year. The company reportedly approached Safe Superintelligence and Perplexity AI, although it was unable to acquire Safe Superintelligence outright. However, the social media giant managed to hire Daniel Gross, CEO of Safe Superintelligence, and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman to join its AI team under Wang's leadership. The company's push into AI also ties into its work with the U.S. defense sector. Meta recently teamed up with Anduril Industries to develop augmented reality devices for the U.S. Army. The companies have submitted a joint bid for contracts worth up to $100 million under a broader $22 billion military modernization program. Realme GT 7: 7000mAh Battery, 120W Charging & Flagship Power Under Rs 40K!
Reuters
4 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
LanceDB raises $30 million for multimodal AI data infrastructure
SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence data infrastructure company LanceDB raised a $30 million series A round, the company said Tuesday. The round was led by Theory Ventures, with participation from CRV, Y Combinator, Databricks Ventures and Runway. LanceDB's platform stores and processes the data that AI companies use to build advanced AI models, with a focus on multimodal AI models capable of processing and integrating various types of data including text, video, images and audio. As AI models get larger, software that helps companies manage data on cloud-based systems is increasingly important. Multimodal data sources have become more important as AI model makers have used the most easily accessible scraped data. "We are nowhere near close to being tapped out on multimodal data sources, and the next wave of AI must have sight and voice built-in," LanceDB CEO Chang She told Reuters. LanceDB's software is particularly useful for enterprises that need to store and process multimodal data like PDFs and videos to enable agentic AI workflows, where AI mimics humans to use software applications, She said. LanceDB works with AI model makers like Runway, Midjourney, World Labs, Harvey and to help manage multimodal data, the company said.
