AI film studios are converging on Culver City

A cluster of AI filmmaking studios is consolidating in Culver City, the city long known as the Heart of Screenland, the Los Angeles Times reported on October 16. AI on the Lot, the AI and media conference that has run in the city since 2023, estimates that AI media companies holding $2 billion in backing have converged there.

The pull showed up on October 14, when Culver Steps, the plaza that normally hosts community events and movie nights, became a job fair for AI studios during LA Tech Week. The LA Tech Week calendar lists the AI Media Career Fair at Culver City from 2 to 5 p.m. that day, hosted by AI on the Lot, with Amazon MGM Studios, Promise, Native Foreign and TrueShort among the companies hiring.

What is the Culver City AI cluster?

Culver City already held Amazon MGM Studios, TikTok, Apple and Sony Pictures Entertainment. The new layer is the AI-native studios settling around them. Promise, TrueShort, Native Foreign and PhantomX are all expanding in the neighborhood, per the LA Times, drawn by the legacy lots they hope to rival and by office space that got cheaper as production spread out across LA.

Luma AI is the largest name in the cluster. The LA Times pegs Luma as a Palo Alto startup valued at $4 billion, a figure CNBC confirmed in November 2025 when Luma raised $900 million led by the Saudi-backed firm Humain. Luma opened its Culver City facility, Dream Lab, last year: 7,000 square feet and a team of 13, according to the Times. Luma's own announcement is dated July 10, 2025. "Culver City is the future of AI and filmmaking," Luma chief operating officer Caroline Ingeborn said in a statement.

TrueShort is the fastest-moving studio. It took most of a 5,000-square-foot office near Amazon's studio last month and has raised $17 million, the LA Times reported. About 45 people work there, roughly 75% of them creatives. Its streaming app carries fully AI-generated true-crime shows, and a 10-minute episode costs about $10,000 and takes about 10 days from idea to release. "The next Netflix or the next Disney is going to come out of AI this time," cofounder Nate Tepper told the Times.

Native Foreign makes AI commercials for Virgin and Toys R Us, and it made one of the first AI-animated shorts, "Critterz," on OpenAI's software. Fast Company reports that OpenAI shut down the model behind it mid-production, and Native Foreign rebuilt the pipeline. Promise is the hybrid shop: backed by Google, North Road and Andreessen Horowitz, per its own site, it generates backgrounds, visual effects and synthetic humans while shooting its performances on LA soundstages with actors. Promise also runs the AI film school Curious Refuge.

The growth is running into new guardrails. SAG-AFTRA's 2026 TV/Theatrical contract, ratified in June, bars producers from using synthetic performers without first bargaining with the union, and commits them to a principle favoring human performance. "We want to make Culver City the capital of AI media," said Mike Gioia, a founder of AI on the Lot, which also ran a networking event for the cluster's companies during the week.

AI on the Lot lists its next Culver City meetups and career fairs at aionthelot.com/events, and the studios expanding there post open roles on their own careers pages.

Cluster card

• Place: Culver City, California
• Report: Los Angeles Times, October 16, 2026
• Studios expanding: Luma AI, Promise, TrueShort, Native Foreign, PhantomX
• Luma facility: Dream Lab, 7,000 sq ft, 13 staff, opened 2025
• TrueShort: $17M raised, about 45 staff, about 75% creatives
• Group estimate: $2 billion in AI media company backing, per AI on the Lot
• More: aionthelot.com/events