River AI Raises $1.1B in Funding

River AI, a Palo Alto-based artificial intelligence startup focused on building personally trainable AI assistants, has raised $1.1 billion in a seed/Series A funding round. Founded only two months ago, the company aims to move away from the trend of human worker replacement in favor of creating AI agents that serve as personal guardians for users.

Investors

This funding round was co-led by General Catalyst and AMP PBC, with participation from Nvidia, AMD Ventures, Y Combinator, and Temasek.

River AI Use of Funds

River AI plans to use the capital to rebuild the artificial intelligence stack from the ground up, including advancements in model training, the product layer, and new hardware to support personal AI agents that live locally near the user.

About River AI

Founded in 2026 by Igor Babuschkin, a former DeepMind and OpenAI researcher who also co-founded xAI, River AI is on a mission to shift the AI industry toward personally trainable assistants. The company currently provides an API that allows developers to perform reinforcement learning and fine-tuning on open models, offering an alternative to traditional prompt engineering.

Funding Details

Company Website: https://river.ai

Company: River AI
Raised: $1.1B
Round: Seed, Series A
Funding Date: August 11, 2026
Lead Investor: General Catalyst, AMP PBC
Additional Investors: Nvidia, AMD Ventures, Y Combinator, Temasek
Software Category: Artificial Intelligence
Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/11/general-catalyst-leads-1-1b-round-into-2-month-old-river-ai/