Prime Highlights
- Luma AI is opening a new London office and plans to hire around 200 employees, making the U.K. base 40% of its total workforce.
- The expansion follows a $900 million funding round, valuing the company at over $4 billion and supporting its global growth strategy.
Key Facts
- Luma develops “world models” that integrate video, audio, images, and text to power AI-driven content creation tools for marketing, media, and entertainment.
- Its latest model, Ray3, benchmarks ahead of OpenAI’s Sora and performs comparably to Google’s Veo 3, highlighting its competitive edge in AI video generation.
Background
Nvidia backed Luma AI, a video generation startup, has announced a major expansion in London as it prepares for rapid global growth. The Palo Alto-based company said it plans to hire around 200 employees at its new London office by early 2027, making the U.K. base roughly 40% of its total workforce.
The announcement follows Luma’s recent $900 million funding round led by Humain, an AI company owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. The investment pushed Luma’s valuation above $4 billion, marking one of the largest recent raises in the AI video sector.
Luma develops “world models,” advanced AI systems that learn from video, audio, images, and text. These models support the next generation of AI applications, including content creation tools used in marketing, advertising, media, and entertainment. Luma offers its video technology through an API and a creative suite designed for agencies and brands.
Amit Jain, CEO and co-founder of Luma AI, stated, “With this Series C funding and the planned expansion of our global compute infrastructure, we now have the resources and capability to deliver world-class AI to creators everywhere.” He added that Europe and the Middle East are key regions for the company’s next phase of growth.
Jain said the company chose London because of its strong talent base and leading AI research institutions, including major universities and DeepMind. “London has some of the best people when it comes to research,” he said, calling the city the company’s entry point into Europe.
Luma joins a growing number of North American AI firms expanding into Europe. Anthropic, Cohere, and OpenAI have all opened offices in European cities over the past year.
Luma’s latest model, Ray3, was released in September and, according to Jain, benchmarks ahead of OpenAI’s Sora and performs at levels comparable to Google’s Veo 3.
