Brands
Luma AI raises $900m as Saudi supercluster powers its world-model push
MUMBAI: If AI is the new space race, Luma AI just strapped itself to a rocket. The frontier multimodal intelligence company has announced a $900 million Series C, one of the largest AI raises of the year, led by HUMAIN, the PIF-backed full-stack AI powerhouse alongside AMD Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Amplify Partners, and Matrix Partners. The announcement, made in Washington, D.C. during the U.S.–Saudi Investment Forum, signals a dramatic leap forward in the race to build AI that doesn’t just reason or respond, but understands and operates within the physical world.
At the heart of this partnership lies Project Halo, HUMAIN’s upcoming 2-gigawatt AI supercluster in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most ambitious compute infrastructure buildouts. Luma AI will become a flagship customer, tapping into Halo’s colossal computational muscle to train its next-generation “world models”, capable of learning from video, image, audio, and language at unprecedented scale.
Luma AI CEO and co-founder Amit Jain framed the moment with characteristic audacity, “To create AI that can help humanity in the physical world… we need systems that can learn from a quadrillion tokens, the digital memory of humanity itself.”
Jain emphasised HUMAIN’s speed of deployment and end-to-end approach as key to achieving the company’s ambitious multimodal roadmap, with the partnership spanning custom models, go-to-market collaboration and frontier-grade deployment.
For HUMAIN, the partnership is as philosophical as it is infrastructural. “We’re not just funding the next wave of AI, we’re building the full value chain that makes it possible,” said CEO Tareq Amin, calling Luma “an exceptional frontier startup” whose research velocity and real-world product chops align with HUMAIN’s global ambitions.
The supercluster will enable training on peta-scale multimodal datasets 1,000 to 10,000 times larger than those used in today’s frontier LLMs. Alongside this, next-generation inference systems will deliver real-time global deployment, an ecosystem designed to simulate, understand, and eventually operate in the physical world.
Luma’s capabilities aren’t theoretical. Its flagship model, Ray3, has already become quietly ubiquitous used by studios, ad agencies, and integrated into Adobe’s global products. The new funding will accelerate Luma’s expansion from entertainment and advertising into high-impact domains such as simulation, robotics, design, and industrial automation.
Luma AI was also the first suite of models to launch under HUMAIN Create, a programme building sovereign AI models for the Arabic-speaking world systems attuned to cultural nuance, linguistic diversity, and regional identity. The new raise gives this initiative significant tailwind as sovereign AI becomes a strategic priority across the Middle East.
With $900 million in fresh fuel, a 2GW supercluster in sight, and a roadmap that aims to learn from humanity’s cumulative digital footprint, Luma AI is positioning itself squarely in the AGI vanguard. The company’s next chapter promises a shift from “generative AI” to reality-scale intelligence models that don’t just create images or text, but simulate the world itself.
In the race to build AI that sees, hears, moves, reasons and interacts like a human, Luma just hit fast-forward.
Brands
Home Essentials raises Rs 70 Cr in pre-series B round
360 One Asset leads funding as D2C brand scales stores and supply chain
GURGAON: Home Essentials, a fast-rising direct-to-consumer brand in India’s home and kitchen space, has secured Rs 70 crore in a pre-series B funding round led by 360 One Asset, with participation from existing backer India Quotient.
The fresh capital is set to fuel the company’s next phase of growth, with a clear focus on offline expansion, supply chain muscle, and sharper product innovation. Over the next three years, the brand plans to scale revenue to Rs 500 crore and reach five million Indian households.
Founded in 2024 by brothers Tanishq Jain and Divyam Jain in Gwalior, Home Essentials has moved swiftly from small-town start-up to national contender. Built on a simple but compelling idea that Indian homes deserve products that are practical, pleasing to the eye, and fairly priced, the company has carved out a niche between high-end luxury labels and no-name utility goods.
From airtight storage solutions to ergonomic loose furniture, its design-first approach has struck a chord with a young, aspirational consumer base. In under two years, the brand has served more than a million customers while maintaining strong unit economics and a clear path to profitability.
Offline retail now forms a key part of the growth blueprint. The company plans to operate 20 stores across India by the end of the year, strengthening its omnichannel presence and bringing its tactile, experiential format to both Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.
360 One Asset senior fund manager Sumit Jain said, the brand is reshaping a highly fragmented category with products that combine aesthetics and function. He noted that the founders have demonstrated disciplined execution and capital efficiency while building a business that resonates with modern Indian households.
India Quotient partner Madhukar Sinha, added that the firm backed Home Essentials early after identifying a clear gap in the market for thoughtfully designed yet affordable home utilities. He said the new funding would help the company expand its catalogue and broaden its national reach.
For Home Essentials co-founder and CEO Tanishq Jain, the mission is straightforward but ambitious. He said the company aims to become the go-to destination for well-designed home and kitchen essentials, with experiential stores reinforcing what began as a strong online play.
Co-founder and chief marketing officer Divyam Jain, emphasised that winning in India’s D2C space requires more than sharp branding. A deep understanding of consumer aspiration, tight supply chain control, and operational efficiency are just as vital, he said, describing 360 ONE Asset and India Quotient as partners in building a high-performance organisation.
In a category long defined by cluttered shelves and uneven quality, Home Essentials is betting that good design, fair pricing, and disciplined execution can turn everyday living into a more polished affair.
