Hark, an AI startup founded by Brett Adcock, announced a massive Series A funding round earlier today. The round was led by Parkway Venture Capital and raised $700 million, pushing the company’s valuation to $6 billion. Other notable investors include NVIDIA, AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures.
Adcock, who also founded Figure AI, said the money will go toward scaling GPU infrastructure, growing the team from 70 to 200 engineers, and designing new AI hardware. The company’s goal is to build what Adcock calls “personal intelligence” — something more advanced than basic chatbots, with memory and vision capabilities.
Huge funding reflects AI infrastructure demand
This funding round is the latest sign of how much investors are betting on ambitious AI hardware and model builders. According to PitchBook, AI startups raised $255.5 billion globally in the first quarter of 2026. That single quarter already surpassed the total AI fundraising for all of 2025, which was $254.4 billion.
The first two weeks of 2026 alone saw over 200 AI-related deals totaling more than $25 billion. Most of that money went to three well-known companies: OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI. Their massive rounds made up over 67% of all AI funding in the quarter.
Focus on hardware and vertical integration
Unlike many AI labs that focus purely on software models, Hark is betting on hardware and vertical integration. The company’s system will have persistent memory of the user’s life and can listen, see, and interact with the world in real time. Hark plans to release AI-native hardware devices designed specifically for its AI.
Adcock hinted that the company is working on a family of AI devices, both for personal use and for the home. To make that happen, Hark has assembled a team of experts from Apple, Meta, Google, Tesla, and Amazon. The company operates on the same campus as Figure, which Adcock also owns, allowing it to leverage robotics where AI enhancements are already in use.
Market trends and competition
Gartner recently reported that global spending on data centers will grow nearly 56% in 2026, surpassing $788 billion. OpenAI is set to unveil its first hardware device in the second half of 2026, developed in partnership with former Apple design chief Jony Ive. Apple is also reportedly developing an AI wearable pin with two cameras and three microphones, and is aiming to release smart glasses by the end of 2026 to rival Meta’s Ray-Bans.
A report from 36Kr.com noted that the United States absorbed 81% of global AI venture dollars in Q1 2026, up from just 55% a year earlier. The same report highlighted that sovereign wealth funds like Singapore’s GIC and Temasek, and the Qatar Investment Authority, have become major players in AI, co-leading huge rounds for Anthropic and OpenAI because traditional venture firms cannot write $10 billion or $30 billion checks alone.
