Stability AI raises $76 million backed by major labels

Stability AI, the company behind the Stable Diffusion image generator, raised $76 million in a Series B round backed by Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group and Electronic Arts, alongside AMD Ventures, Pacific Alliance Ventures, Coatue, Greycroft, Kadmos Capital, Sean Parker and Eric Schmidt. The round brings the company's total funding under chief executive Prem Akkaraju, who joined in 2024, to $232 million.

The investment follows commercial licensing deals Stability AI has struck with Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Electronic Arts to build AI models trained on those companies' catalogues and intellectual property. The company said the capital will fund its creative-production product suite, its applied research work and its professional services arm.

Major rights holders investing directly in a model maker they also license content to gives them a stake in how that content is used, not just a fee for using it.