Odyssey Secures $1.45 Billion Valuation in Funding Round Led by Amazon and Top Investors

Odyssey, an AI startup specialising in world models and founded by autonomous vehicle veterans Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, has secured $310 million in a Series B funding round, valuing the company at $1.45 billion. The investment was led by Natural Capital, with participation from Amazon, AMD Ventures, GV, and several other investors.

World models are emerging as one of the next major frontiers in artificial intelligence, moving beyond traditional large language models by learning from real-world environments and accurately simulating physical interactions. Odyssey has focused its efforts on collecting real-world data and recreating it digitally using advanced AI models.

To build its datasets, the company adopted an approach similar to Google Earth’s mapping process. Rather than relying on camera-equipped vehicles, Odyssey collects visual data by having individuals carry camera systems as they move through real-world environments.

The strategy reflects the founders’ backgrounds in autonomous driving. CEO Oliver Cameron previously co-founded self-driving startup Voyage, which was acquired by General Motors’ Cruise, where he later served as Vice President of Product. CTO Jeff Hawke previously worked as an engineer at U.K.-based autonomous vehicle company Wayve.

Founded in 2023, Odyssey has developed several world models designed for different applications, including robotics, video game development, and AI-generated interactive video. The company has attracted particular attention for technology capable of producing rich, interactive video experiences directly from text prompts.

With Amazon participating in the latest funding round, Odyssey has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud infrastructure provider. The startup also plans to optimise its AI models to run on AWS Trainium chips, positioning them as an alternative to Nvidia’s widely used AI hardware.

In addition to its institutional investors, Odyssey has assembled a notable group of angel backers, including Google Chief Scientist Jeff Dean, investor Elad Gil, Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan, Vercel founder Guillermo Rauch, and Cruise founder Kyle Vogt.

Following the latest financing, Odyssey has now raised approximately $337 million since its launch, strengthening its position as one of the leading startups developing next-generation AI world models for real-world simulation and interactive applications.