LiveKit, a developer of real‑time AI voice and video infrastructure, announced a $100 million funding round that values the company at $1 billion. The round was led by Index Ventures with participation from existing backers such as Altimeter Capital Management, Hanabi Capital and Redpoint Ventures. LiveKit powers OpenAI’s ChatGPT voice mode and counts customers like xAI, Salesforce, Tesla, 911 emergency service operators and mental‑health providers. Founded in 2021 by Russ d’Sa and David Zhao as an open‑source project, the startup pivoted to a managed cloud offering to meet enterprise demand amid the voice‑AI boom. Leer más →

Google DeepMind has hired the CEO and several engineers from voice AI startup Hume AI as part of a new licensing agreement. The move brings Hume AI's expertise in emotion‑aware speech processing to improve Gemini's voice capabilities. Hume AI will retain a non‑exclusive right to its intellectual property, continue supplying its technology to other firms, and launch new models while targeting $100 million in revenue this year. The deal highlights a growing trend of AI giants acquiring talent rather than whole companies, underscoring voice as the next frontier in artificial intelligence. Leer más →