WANAN YOSSINGKUM
Sunnyvale, California-based startup Reka AI raised $110M in funding from investors including Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Snowflake (NYSE:SNOW), a deal that more than triples the AI firm’s valuation to more than $1B, Bloomberg News reported.
Reka, which makes large language models, or LLMs, was founded in 2022 by researchers from Alphabet’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google and Meta Platforms (META).
The startup was previously valued at around $300M in a 2023 funding round, according to PitchBook data, the report added.
Last year, Bloomberg reported that Snowflake planned to acquire Reka. However, the deal talks fell through after “both companies decided it made sense to move independently,” said Reka CEO Dani Yogatama, adding that he is continuing to collaborate with Snowflake, the report noted.
Nvidia and Snowflake did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
Vivek Raghunathan, vice president of AI engineering at Snowflake, said the company would provide Reka AI’s models and other offerings to its customers, according to the report.
“Very few teams in the world have the capability to build what they’ve built,” said Raghunathan. “Almost everyone at that level of talent is at OpenAI, Meta or Anthropic. Reka is one of the rare independents — and they’ve proven they can compete.”