Nvidia, TCV Invest in Generative AI Startup Higgsfield
Higgsfield, a company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create videos and images for marketing and entertainment, has received more money in its Series B funding round. The new investments came from Nvidia and the investment company TCV.
Higgsfield is based in San Francisco. The company announced the investments on Friday, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was visiting Kazakhstan. Many of Higgsfield's founding team members come from Kazakhstan. Higgsfield did not say how much money Nvidia and TCV invested. The new investments follow the start of Higgsfield's Series B funding round in August. That round included investments from DST Global, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Tribe Capital, AI Capital Partners, Smash Capital, GFT Ventures, and Valor Capital. It raised $400 million and valued Higgsfield at $5.4 billion. In September, Higgsfield reached $1 billion in annualized revenue, meaning the amount of money it was making would equal $1 billion over a full year if it continued at the same rate.
Higgsfield CEO Alex Mashrabov said in a statement that brands, movie studios, and people who create content now need more pictures and videos than traditional production methods can provide. He said a new type of business is growing to meet that need. Mashrabov said TCV has supported well-known companies that changed the media industry, while Nvidia's technology has helped power every version of Higgsfield's platform. He said that having support from leaders in computing technology and media development puts Higgsfield in a strong position to lead this new area.
Neil Tolaney, a General Partner at TCV, said he believes Alex Mashrabov and the Higgsfield team are making their big idea a reality at an unusually fast pace. He said the company is developing products and attracting customers faster than TCV has rarely seen before. According to Tolaney, Higgsfield gives content creators, brand marketing teams, and agencies a much faster way to turn ideas into professional-quality images and videos using tools built around AI.
Nvidia has invested in other AI startups working in entertainment before. These include two separate investments in Runway, an AI company that works with Lionsgate. This is Nvidia's first investment in Higgsfield. However, Higgsfield has already been using Nvidia's technology to run its platform. The platform processes 12 trillion tokens every month and produces 150 million AI-generated results. Tokens are small pieces of information that AI systems process.
Rev Lebaredian, Nvidia's vice president of physical AI simulation, said in a statement that AI factories produce intelligence in the form of tokens. He explained that software applications are what turn those tokens into something useful. He said Higgsfield and Nvidia are working together on computer hardware and software to turn computing power into creative work. According to Lebaredian, this work supports millions of users and hundreds of the world's biggest brands.
Higgsfield was founded in 2023. Since then, it has worked to become a partner for entertainment studios, marketing customers, and new filmmakers by offering different tools that create content using AI. The company also makes its own films and other content. In May, Higgsfield attracted attention and controversy in the film industry with "Hell Grind," an action-adventure movie made using AI. The film premiered at the Marché du Film, the film marketplace held during the Cannes Film Festival. Higgsfield later released an animated short film called "Kök Börü" and an action movie called "Cully Hill Boys." The action movie included images resembling streamer N3on and UFC fighters Israel Adesanya and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.