AI video generator Pika Labs raises 80 million US dollars

AI video generator Pika Labs has raised $80 million, joining other AI video startups like Runway, HeyGen, and Synthesia that have also raised larger amounts of funding recently. Pika Labs' valuation jumped to $470 million after the funding round, which still lags behind Runway's $1.5 billion valuation. What sets Pika apart from the standard AI startup is that it's training its own foundational model. "We're very confident that we're building the best foundational model for video," Pika co-founder Demi Guo told the Washington Post. The 13-person team includes former AI researchers from Google, Meta, and Uber. Based on demos, OpenAI's Sora currently leads all other AI video generators by a wide margin - but is not yet publicly available. The same goes for Google's video generator.