Hark has raised over $700 million in funding. The current round put the San Jose-based startup at a $6 billion valuation post-money. The investment was led by Parkway Venture Capital, with an impressive roster of strategic participants including NVIDIA, AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and ARK Invest.
The funding cements Hark’s position as a heavyweight contender in the race to move artificial intelligence beyond the chatbot era and into dedicated, personalised physical devices.
The Vision: A Universal Human-Machine Interface
Unlike most AI companies that focus on one layer (building an LLM or a specialised application), Hark is taking an extremely vertically integrated approach, working on its own foundation models, software stack, and custom hardware.
“We’re building the AI that everyone deserves, but no one has built yet – one that actually knows you, speaks your language, is highly personalised, and lives on hardware made for you,” said Brett Adcock, Founder & CEO of Hark. Adcock, who also serves as the CEO of humanoid robotics firm Figure and founded Archer Aviation, noted that today’s AI feels basic because it lacks persistent memory and is constrained by decades-old consumer devices.
Source: Unsplash
Hark’s goal is to create a universal interface that can see, hear, and interact with the physical world naturally. These devices are rumoured to be distinct from existing handsets or wearables, focusing instead on proactive assistance and deep personalisation.
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Recruitment and Infrastructure
The enormous infusion of capital will also be leveraged to expand Hark’s engineering department from 70 to 200 researchers and engineers. The company has already attracted world-class talent, including Apple veterans and graduated engineers from Google, Meta, and Tesla. In a notable hire, Hark has brought in former Apple iPhone and Mac lead designer Abidur Chowdhury.
Hark has obtained a large amount of GPU infrastructure to build its next generation of multimodal models. The company has confirmed they are in the process of launching a new NVIDIA B200 data centre, enabling them to build multimodal models with integrated speech, vision and ground-up contextual awareness.
Competition in the AI Gadget Space
Hark’s emergence comes at a time when the tech industry is desperate for a post-smartphone hardware hit. The startup faces stiff competition:
- OpenAI is reportedly collaborating with legendary iPhone designer Jony Ive on an AI device.
- Apple, Google, and Meta are all racing to integrate agentic AI features into their next generation of wearables and smart glasses.
However, Hark’s full-stack philosophy, where the hardware is built specifically for the model and vice versa, is a bet that a seamless end-to-end product will outperform general-purpose devices running AI as an add-on.
Hark plans to roll out its initial AI models later this summer, giving early access to its personal intelligence platform via software. The release of its native hardware devices will follow, though the company has not yet provided a specific launch date for the physical products.
