Nvidia and growth investor TCV have invested in Higgsfield, the AI video generation startup that runs most of its engineering out of Kazakhstan, extending the company's August Series B. Higgsfield said the new money will fund global infrastructure and hiring, and that its registered user base has grown past 40 million.
Higgsfield did not disclose the size of the extension or an updated valuation. The August round raised $400 million at a $5.4 billion valuation and was led by DST Global, with Goldman Sachs Alternatives' growth equity business, Intel Capital and Tribe Capital among the participants. Existing backers Accel and Menlo Ventures also took part.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang confirmed the investment on October 23 in Astana, where he spoke in a fireside chat with Zhaslan Madiyev, Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, at the alem.ai International AI Center. Huang was in the country as the special guest of a national AI Month event.
“The first thing and the last thing is you invest in people, not companies”— Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia
Key facts
- 01Nvidia and TCV invested in Higgsfield, extending the AI video startup's August Series B; terms were not disclosed.
- 02The August round raised $400 million at a $5.4 billion valuation, led by DST Global.
- 03Higgsfield says registered users top 40 million; annualized revenue hit $700 million in August, up from $200 million in January.
- 04Jensen Huang confirmed the investment in Astana on October 23 during a fireside chat with Deputy PM Zhaslan Madiyev.
- 05Higgsfield, founded in 2023 by Alex Mashrabov and Yerzat Dulat, keeps most of its engineering team in Kazakhstan.
Higgsfield's valuation has climbed fast. An $80 million extension in January valued the company at $1.3 billion, and the August round put it at $5.4 billion. Annualized revenue reached $700 million in August, up from $200 million in January.
Co-founder Alex Mashrabov said last month that the platform is on track to pass $1 billion in annualized revenue. The company said it has added 10 million paying customers since its summer fundraise.
Higgsfield gives users access to about 35 AI video models from other providers alongside its own engine. Its products include Diffuse, a mobile-first app, and ReelMagic, aimed at longer-form video.
Mashrabov, a former Snap executive who worked on generative AI there, founded Higgsfield in 2023 with Kazakhstani AI engineer Yerzat Dulat. The company is described as Kazakhstan's first unicorn, and Madiyev said its average employee age is 25.
TCV, a growth-stage fund that has backed Netflix, Spotify and ByteDance, said Higgsfield offers a radically faster, professional-grade and AI-native mechanism for creators.
The funding lands in a well-capitalized category. Kuaishou's Kling AI raised $2.8 billion at about a $15 billion valuation this summer, and US rival Runway raised $315 million at a $5.3 billion valuation in February, a round in which Nvidia also participated.
Higgsfield's co-founder said the new partnerships could help Kazakhstani AI companies build globally competitive products.
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