Stability AI raises $76M Series B from music and gaming giants

Stability AI, the startup behind the AI image generation model Stable Diffusion, has raised $76 million in Series B funding, bringing the company’s total fundraising to $232 million. The company announced the round Tuesday, saying the new capital comes partly from a number of prominent entertainment industry organizations, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, and gaming giant Electronic Arts. Two investment firms, AMD Ventures and Pacific Alliance Ventures, also took part.

It’s an unusual roster — a less typical venture lineup than a list of the companies Stability now depends on for content licensing and distribution deals. Stability AI CEO Prem Akkaraju, who joined the company in 2024, called the funding “an affirmation of our vision where generative AI empowers every producer, musician, and storyteller.”

The company says it plans to use the money to continue building out its “creative production” product suite while expanding its professional services arm. Stability currently offers a variety of AI models for AI music, video, and image generation.

Stability, founded in 2019, has spent the past year signing deals to weave generative AI into entertainment companies’ creative workflows. It struck partnerships with Universal Music and EA last October and with Warner Music last November, each giving those companies a hand in co-developing Stability’s AI tools rather than just licensing the output.

Stability has also had a mostly winning stretch in court. The company largely prevailed in a copyright lawsuit brought by Getty Images in the United Kingdom, which had accused Stability of infringing its IP rights by using Getty’s images to train its image generation model; a judge ruled largely in Stability’s favor, though a similar lawsuit from Getty in the U.S. is still working its way through the courts. Stability was also sued in 2023 by the company’s co-founder, Cyrus Hodes, who claimed he was tricked by fellow co-founder Emad Mostaque into selling his share in the company.

Why it matters

The roster of entertainment-industry backers, rather than typical venture funds, signals Stability’s pivot from a standalone AI lab to an embedded technology partner for the studios and labels it now depends on for content and distribution.