Utopai Studios raises $60M at $1B, The Information reports

AI film studio Utopai Studios has raised $60 million at a $1 billion valuation and is fielding offers that could value it at up to $3 billion, according to The Information. The figures rest on a single outlet's reporting: no investor, buyer or term has been named in any account of the round, and it does not appear on Utopai's own site. The outlet posted the same numbers to X on October 24, 2026, and Dealroom logged the round on October 23, 2026.

Dealroom describes the raise as $60 million in growth equity at a $1 billion valuation, and says Utopai is already holding term sheets for a follow-on round that would value it at $2 billion to $3 billion. DigitalToday reports the same $2 billion to $3 billion range, attributed to a source close to the company. AI Market Watch called it an acquisition offer of up to $3 billion, citing a brief from Sina Finance, and said the brief names neither the buyer nor the terms.

Individual productions raise separate financing on top of the company round, according to Dealroom's account of the report. Chief executive Cecilia Shen told The Information that AI tools cut the cost of planning scenes and computer graphics by 80 percent to 90 percent, Dealroom reported, though the studio still pays directors and actors.

Utopai Studios is based in Mountain View, California. It grew out of Cybever, a company focused on 3D world creation and video generation, and was repositioned as a film and television studio, according to a Variety feature that is labeled partner content. Shen, a former Google X employee, founded the company in 2022, Dealroom reports, and Jie Yang is co-founder and chief technology officer.

The studio's model, Utopai X, is post-trained on the open-source MiniMax H3, per its own blog. Utopai says the model scored 1,150 Elo in the September 29, 2026 results on Artificial Analysis' Text-to-Video Leaderboard With Audio, placing it second and making it the highest-ranked model from a U.S.-based company. The board, as of October 26, 2026, lists Utopai X at 1,167, behind Wan 3.0 at 1,175. Unlike Kling, Runway and Luma, which train their own frontier models, Utopai draws on models from several providers and sells its software to outside filmmakers as well as using it in-house, Dealroom and DigitalToday reported.

The Information reports Utopai has more than 20 film and TV projects in development. The Variety feature describes 25 projects and says three feature films and two series are due in 2027.

The $1 billion mark sits below the sums moving elsewhere in AI video. Kling AI, the video unit of China's Kuaishou, raised nearly $3 billion at a $15 billion valuation over the summer, Dealroom reported.

For creators, the round is a bet on workflow and distribution rather than on owning a model. Utopai's edge depends on how its films are received and on whether its tools win outside users, so a well-funded studio competitor could mean more demand for AI production software and more competition for the same screens. Whether the $3 billion figure holds depends on a buyer and terms that have not been disclosed.

The next test is the 2027 slate: Utopai says it aims to screen its films in about 3,000 North American theaters, against the single-screen runs that AI-made features have had so far.