Still facing copyright lawsuits, AI music generator Suno raises another $400M
Key takeaways
- Suno, the AI music generation company, announced on Wednesday that it has raised a $400 million Series D round, valuing the company at $5.4 billion.
- As Suno itself has admitted, the company trains its AI on copyrighted songs.
- When Sony and UMG initially sued Suno in 2024, the companies claimed that Suno had trained on 560 of their copyrighted works.
Suno, the AI music generation company, announced on Wednesday that it has raised a $400 million Series D round, valuing the company at $5.4 billion. It was only about seven months ago that Suno raised at a $2.45 billion valuation, underscoring that investors are confident in the company s future despite the litigation it faces.
That legal trouble isn t minor. As Suno itself has admitted, the company trains its AI on copyrighted songs. The company argues that this is permissible according to fair use — a legal doctrine that allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission, but one that is highly fact-specific and can vary widely from case to case. Copyright holders like Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony, and German music collection organization GEMA have continued to pursue legal action against Suno, though Warner Music Group (WMG) settled and reached a licensing deal with the company last November.
When Sony and UMG initially sued Suno in 2024, the companies claimed that Suno had trained on 560 of their copyrighted works. That number has since grown meaningfully. Last month, the record labels filed to amend their complaint to allege that over 61,000 more songs were used for AI training without permission.