--- title: River AI raised $1.1bn to let companies train and keep... description: River AI, founded by xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, has raised $1.1bn led by General Catalyst and AMP PBC, with strategic stakes from NVIDIA and AMD Ventures,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/river-ai-raised-1-1bn-to-let-companies-train-and-keep-their-own-models-8qsfaoj5s twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: River AI raised $1.1bn to let companies train and keep their own models | daily.dev og:description: River AI, founded by xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, has raised $1.1bn led by General Catalyst and AMP PBC, with strategic stakes from NVIDIA and AMD Ventures,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/river-ai-raised-1-1bn-to-let-companies-train-and-keep-their-own-models-8qsfaoj5s og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/8qSfAOj5S.png og:image:alt: River AI raised $1.1bn to let companies train and keep their own models og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # River AI raised $1.1bn to let companies train and keep their own models **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary River AI, founded by xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, has raised $1.1bn led by General Catalyst and AMP PBC, with strategic stakes from NVIDIA and AMD Ventures, plus participation from Y Combinator and Temasek. The company, incorporated in Nevada just four months ago, sells an API for LoRA fine-tuning and reinforcement learning on open weight frontier models, handling infrastructure like weight transfers and elastic compute. River claims complex RL runs complete in 15–20 minutes with no infrastructure team needed, at 2–4x cost savings versus closed-source alternatives, with token-based billing to eliminate idle GPU costs. The company also plans to build hardware for personal AI close to end users. No valuation was disclosed, though Forbes had previously reported a target of up to $5bn. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What does River AI's model training API offer and how fast are its reinforcement learning runs? River AI sells an API for LoRA fine-tuning and reinforcement learning on frontier open weight models, handling infrastructure including weight transfers, sampling-training consistency, and elastic compute. The company claims a complex RL run completes in 15 to 20 minutes with no infrastructure team required, at two to four times the cost savings of closed-source alternatives. Billing is metered on tokens used for training and inference, eliminating idle GPU costs. _Teams evaluating open weight model training platforms track options like River AI on daily.dev._ ### Who founded River AI and what is their background? River AI was founded by Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of xAI. Before that, he worked on generative modelling and reinforcement learning at Google DeepMind, then led large-scale training at OpenAI. He left xAI in August 2025, initially to start a venture firm, before founding River AI, which was incorporated in Nevada on April 20. _Developers following the open weight AI ecosystem keep up with founder moves and new entrants on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [China’s Qingxing Raises Nearly 100 Million Yuan to Develop Quantum-Inspired AI](https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-qingxing-raises-nearly-100-million-yuan-to-develop-quantum-inspired-ai-ykgpik23f) · The Quantum Insider · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [OpenAI raises $110B in one of the largest private funding rounds in history](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-raises-110b-in-one-of-the-largest-private-funding-rounds-in-history-dyeaqulf1) · TechCrunch · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [OpenAI spent $34bn last year as it lines up for an IPO](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-spent-34bn-last-year-as-it-lines-up-for-an-ipo-2rpwtixp3) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI chip startups soak up $1.1B in VC funding this week](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-chip-startups-soak-up-1-1b-in-vc-funding-this-week-sbcfggett) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#machine-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/machine-learning), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#deep-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/deep-learning), [#reinforcement-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/reinforcement-learning) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/river-ai-raised-1-1bn-to-let-companies-train-and-keep-their-own-models-8qsfaoj5s) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"River AI raised $1.1bn to let companies train and keep their own models","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/river-ai-raised-1-1bn-to-let-companies-train-and-keep-their-own-models-8qsfaoj5s","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/river-ai-raised-1-1bn-to-let-companies-train-and-keep-their-own-models-8qsfaoj5s"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T15:31:46.216Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T17:44:23.740Z","description":"River AI, founded by xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, has raised $1.1bn led by General Catalyst and AMP PBC, with strategic stakes from NVIDIA and AMD Ventures,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b47a5e1d2479328c0b16de86cf935d07?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/b47a5e1d2479328c0b16de86cf935d07?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/river-ai-raised-1-1bn-to-let-companies-train-and-keep-their-own-models-8qsfaoj5s","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"machine-learning,open-source,deep-learning,reinforcement-learning","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"River AI raised $1.1bn to let companies train and keep their own models"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/river-ai-raised-1-1bn-to-let-companies-train-and-keep-their-own-models-8qsfaoj5s#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What does River AI's model training API offer and how fast are its reinforcement learning runs?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"River AI sells an API for LoRA fine-tuning and reinforcement learning on frontier open weight models, handling infrastructure including weight transfers, sampling-training consistency, and elastic compute. The company claims a complex RL run completes in 15 to 20 minutes with no infrastructure team required, at two to four times the cost savings of closed-source alternatives. Billing is metered on tokens used for training and inference, eliminating idle GPU costs. Teams evaluating open weight model training platforms track options like River AI on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Who founded River AI and what is their background?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"River AI was founded by Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of xAI. Before that, he worked on generative modelling and reinforcement learning at Google DeepMind, then led large-scale training at OpenAI. He left xAI in August 2025, initially to start a venture firm, before founding River AI, which was incorporated in Nevada on April 20. Developers following the open weight AI ecosystem keep up with founder moves and new entrants on daily.dev."}}]} ```