Artificial intelligence company Reka AI raised a $110 million funding round from investors including Nvidia Corp. and Snowflake Inc. — a deal that more than triples the startup’s valuation to over $1 billion. Reka AI makes large language models, the technology underpinning much of the generative AI craze, and says it can do it more efficiently than competitors. The startup was founded in 2022 by researchers from Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc. It was previously valued at about $300 million in a 2023 investment round, according to PitchBook data. The investment comes at a time when young AI firms are being intensely pursued by investors and large tech companies. Snowflake previously held talks with Reka AI to acquire the company, Bloomberg reported last year. Those deal talks fell through after “both companies decided it made sense to move independently,” said Chief Executive Officer Dani Yogatama, adding that he is continuing to collaborate with Snowflake. Reka AI was founded with the goal of creating capable and efficient foundation models, and now also makes tools to help companies with interfaces, application logic and other applications. The number of employees has grown from 20 to 50 in the past year, Yogatama said, as the company aims to accelerate product development.

Full report : Reka AI, which aims to make more efficient LLMs, raised $110 million from Nvidia, Snowflake, and others at a $1 billion plus valuation.