Hark's Brett Adcock Raises $700M for Personalized AI

Hark, the New Venture of Brett Adcock

Brett Adcock, the CEO of Figure AI, recently announced that his new company, Hark, has successfully raised $700 million in a Series A funding round. This funding round, which values Hark at $6 billion, was led by Parkway Venture Capital and saw participation from heavyweights like Nvidia, AMD Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures.

Hark is positioning itself in the highly competitive artificial intelligence sector, where it competes with giants such as OpenAI, Apple, Google, and Meta. The San Jose-based startup focuses on developing customized AI models and hardware devices that enable a more natural interaction with users and the physical world.

An Ambitious Vision for AI

Brett Adcock expressed his ambitious vision for Hark in a statement, saying, "We are building the AI that everyone deserves, but no one has yet created — an AI that truly knows you, speaks your language, is highly personalized, and lives on hardware made for you." This funding will allow Hark to quickly make this technology available to the public at scale.

Although the startup remains tight-lipped about its specific plans, it has announced its intention to deploy its AI models later this summer. Users will be able to benefit from early access to its personal AI platform, although the release date for the hardware devices is yet to be specified.

A Thriving Market

Hark is not alone in this race for AI innovation. OpenAI, for instance, is collaborating with Jony Ive, the designer of the iPhone, on a range of AI devices. Meanwhile, Apple, Google, and Meta are also developing their own AI gadgets.

To strengthen its team, Hark has recruited Abidur Chowdhury, a former Apple employee who contributed to the design of the iPhone Air, as well as hardware and AI engineers from Google, Meta, and Amazon.

Brett Adcock's Ambitions

Founded at the end of last year with an initial investment of $100 million from Brett Adcock himself, Hark leverages the experience and resources of its founder. The humanoid robots from Figure AI are already using some of the models developed by Hark, which, according to Adcock, will be crucial for the scalability of these humanoids.

With a net worth estimated at nearly $20 billion, Adcock is no stranger to entrepreneurial success. He previously founded Archer Aviation, a company specializing in electric aircraft, and holds about half of Figure AI, which was valued at $39 billion last year.