Runway, an AI video generation startup, has secured $315 million in a Series E funding round, lifting its valuation to approximately $5 billion. According to a company announcement, these new resources will support the development of advanced "world models" and their integration into various products and industries.

World models are AI systems designed to build internal representations of environments, enabling them to anticipate future scenarios. Many experts consider this technology crucial for advancing beyond the capabilities of current large language models. While Runway is widely recognized for its physics-aware AI video generation, it introduced its first world model in December and now sees the approach as key to addressing complex challenges in areas such as medicine, climate, energy, and robotics.

This strategic focus aligns with growing competition among research labs developing world models. Notable competitors include Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs and Google DeepMind, both of which have recently released their models to the public.

The funding announcement follows the launch of Runway’s latest video generation model, Gen 4.5. This update enables users to create high-definition videos from text prompts and features native audio, long-form and multi-shot generation, character consistency, and advanced editing tools. Gen 4.5 has strengthened Runway’s industry standing by outperforming video generation models from Google and OpenAI on several benchmarks—a achievement that likely contributed to heightened investor confidence.

In addition to advancing its models, Runway has been scaling its infrastructure. A recent partnership with CoreWeave to boost computing capacity may have further assured investors of the company’s ability to operate in a resource-intensive field.

Looking forward, Runway intends to use the new capital to grow its team of around 140 employees, with hires planned across research, engineering, and go-to-market functions. The funding round was led by General Atlantic, with participation from Nvidia, Fidelity Management & Research, AllianceBernstein, Adobe Ventures, Mirae Asset, Emphatic Capital, Felicis, Premji, and AMD Ventures.