Odyssey AI Nabs $1.45B Valuation Backed by Amazon and Other Big Names

World model startup Odyssey AI has raised $310 million at a $1.45 billion valuation in a Series B round led by Natural Capital, with participation from Amazon, AMD Ventures, GV, EQT, and In-Q-Tel.

Odyssey AI, a startup building AI systems that can simulate the physical world, has raised $310 million in a Series B round that values the company at $1.45 billion. The round was led by Natural Capital, with participation from Amazon, AMD Ventures, GV (Google Ventures), EQT, and In-Q-Tel, the venture arm of the U.S. intelligence community.

The fundraising underscores growing investor appetite for advanced simulation technologies beyond chatbots and text-based models. Odyssey AI is developing "world models" AI systems that understand physics, causality, and time to simulate real-world environments rather than simply predicting the next word.

Odyssey AI was founded in late 2023 by CEO Oliver Cameron, former co-founder of autonomous vehicle startup Voyage (acquired by GM's Cruise), and CTO Jeff Hawke, a founding engineer at UK self-driving startup Wayve. The company's 55-person team spans Palo Alto, London, and Zurich, and includes alumni from DeepMind, Tesla, Waymo, Meta, and Apple.

As part of the deal, Amazon Web Services will become Odyssey AI's preferred cloud provider, giving the startup access to AWS Trainium chips designed for training and running high-performance AI models. The partnership includes joint research and go-to-market efforts to bring world models to industries including robotics, gaming, healthcare, education, and defense.

Co-founder Oliver Cameron said the funding provides the compute, infrastructure, and partners needed to push world models toward a "GPT-3 moment" for the field. Over the last three years, Odyssey AI has released four major research systems: Odyssey-2 Max for physics accuracy, Starchild-1 for real-time multimodal interaction, Agora-1 for multi-agent coordination, and PROWL for active learning.

Notable individual investors in Odyssey AI include Google chief scientist Jeff Dean, Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan, Cruise founder Kyle Vogt, investor Elad Gil, and Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch. The company has now raised $337 million to date.

As Odyssey AI nabs a $1.45 billion valuation backed by Amazon and other big names, The Silicon Review examines how world models are emerging as the next frontier in artificial intelligence.

FAQ:

Q: What is Odyssey AI and what does it do?
A: Odyssey AI is building world models AI systems that simulate the physical world with accurate physics, causality, and time for applications in robotics, gaming, healthcare, and defense.

Q: How much funding did Odyssey AI raise in the Series B round?
A: Odyssey AI raised $310 million in a Series B funding round at a $1.45 billion valuation.

Q: Who backed Odyssey AI in the latest funding round?
A: The round was led by Natural Capital with participation from Amazon, AMD Ventures, GV, EQT, and In-Q-Tel.

Q: What is Amazon's role in Odyssey AI's latest funding?
A: AWS becomes Odyssey AI's preferred cloud provider, and the startup will use AWS Trainium chips for training and running its AI models.

Q: Who founded Odyssey AI?
A: Odyssey AI was founded by Oliver Cameron, former VP of product at Cruise, and Jeff Hawke, a founding engineer at Wayve.