The artificial intelligence startup ecosystem continues to witness unprecedented funding momentum,
and the latest example is Humans&, a three-month-old AI startup that has raised a staggering $480 million in seed funding at a $4.48 billion valuation, according to The New York Times. The megadeal positions Humans& among the most highly valued early-stage AI companies in history and underscores investor confidence in startups founded by alumni of leading AI labs.
Backed by Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and Top Venture Firms:
The Humans& seed round attracted a powerful lineup of investors, including Nvidia, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, SV Angel, GV (Google Ventures), and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective. The participation of both strategic and institutional investors highlights the growing belief that the next wave of AI innovation will focus on human collaboration, not human replacement.
This funding round places Humans& firmly within the elite category of mega-seed AI startups, a growing trend in 2025 and 2026 as investors aggressively back experienced founders spinning out of established AI research organizations.
A Founding Team from the World’s Leading AI Labs:
One of Humans&’s strongest assets is its founding team, which brings together deep expertise from Anthropic, Google, xAI, Stanford, and other top institutions.
Key founders include:
- Andi Peng, former Anthropic researcher, who worked extensively on reinforcement learning and post-training systems for Claude models ranging from Claude 3.5 through Claude 4.5.
- Georges Harik, Google’s seventh employee, instrumental in building Google’s earliest advertising and monetization systems.
- Eric Zelikman and Yuchen He, former xAI researchers who helped develop Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot.
- Noah Goodman, Stanford professor of psychology and computer science, widely recognized for his work in probabilistic modeling and human cognition.
In addition to the founding team, Humans& employs around 20 researchers and engineers, many of whom previously worked at OpenAI, Meta, MIT, AI2, and Reflection AI. This concentration of elite talent further explains the extraordinary valuation for such a young company.
Humans& Philosophy: AI That Empowers People:
At the core of Humans& is a clear philosophical stance: AI should empower humans rather than replace them. Unlike automation-focused AI startups aiming to eliminate human roles, Humans& is building tools designed to strengthen collaboration, communication, and collective intelligence.
The company is developing software that functions like an AI-enhanced instant messaging and collaboration platform, enabling people to work together more effectively. Instead of acting as a standalone chatbot, the AI is envisioned as a connective layer embedded into human workflows.
According to the company’s website, Humans& aims to create AI that acts as “deeper connective tissue that strengthens organizations and communities.”This vision reflects a broader shift in the AI industry toward human-centered AI design.
Innovations in Reinforcement Learning, Memory, and Multi-Agent Systems:
From a technical perspective, Humans& plans to leverage and extend existing AI techniques rather than building entirely new foundation models from scratch.
The startup is focused on innovations in:
- Long-horizon reinforcement learning.
- Multi-agent reinforcement learning.
- Persistent memory systems.
- User understanding and context retention.
One notable goal is to train AI systems that can actively request information from users, store it over time, and recall it later to improve collaboration. This approach addresses one of the most significant limitations of today’s AI assistants: fragmented memory and shallow contextual understanding.
By tightly integrating scientific research and product development, Humans& hopes to rethink how models are trained at scale and how people interact with AI on a daily basis.
Part of a Larger Mega-Seed Funding Trend:
While Humans&’s $480 million seed round is extraordinary, it is not an isolated case in today’s AI funding environment. The current record for the largest seed round in history belongs to Thinking Machines Lab, which raised $2 billion last year at a $12 billion valuation. That company was founded by former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, alongside top researchers from Meta and Google.
However, recent reports of significant leadership departures at Thinking Machines Lab serve as a reminder that massive capital and elite credentials do not guarantee long-term success.
Other notable mega-seed rounds include:
- Unconventional AI, which raised $475 million at a $4.5 billion valuation to develop energy-efficient neuromorphic computing systems.
- Lila Sciences, which secured $200 million in seed funding for its autonomous AI-powered laboratory platform.
These deals reflect an investor belief that the next generation of AI breakthroughs will come from new organizational models, novel training approaches, and interdisciplinary teams.
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Start Free DemoWhat Comes Next for Humans&?
As of now, Humans& has not publicly commented beyond its website statements, and TechCrunch has reached out for additional details. With nearly half a billion dollars in seed capital, the startup has ample runway to pursue its ambitious vision.
Whether Humans& can translate its philosophy of human-empowering AI into a scalable, widely adopted product remains to be seen. However, its combination of elite talent, massive funding, and a clear mission places it firmly among the most closely watched AI startups of the decade.
