Harmonic AI Secures $120M at $1.45B Valuation to Eliminate AI Hallucinations Through Mathematical Reasoning

Harmonic AI raises $120M at $1.45B valuation to advance mathematical reasoning - SiliconANGLE

Harmonic AI raises $120M at $1.45B valuation to advance mathematical reasoning Artificial intelligence for formal mathematical reasoning startup Harmonic AI Inc. announced today that it has raised $120 million in new funding on a $1.45 billion valuation to accelerate its momentum in developing an advanced mathematical reasoning model that eliminates hallucinations. Founded in 2023 and co-founded by Vlad Tenev, chief executive of Robinhood Markets Inc., Harmonic's main offering is Aristotle, an AI engine the specializes in formal mathematical reasoning. The engine uses the Lean 4 proof assistant, a proof assistant that allows users to write mathematical definitions, theorems and proofs in a way that can be checked for correctness by a computer, to translate natural-language math problems into formally verifiable proofs. The company's approach is focused on mathematical superintelligence, AI with reasoning capabilities that match or exceed humans. The methodology involves the use of synthetic data generation for training that, instead of relying on web-scraped data, autonomously generates formal problem-proof pairs, which enable recursive self-improvement. Essentially, the AI model can train itself through a "self-play loop" to scale its capabilities, working from simple exercises toward solving advanced theorems. Aristotle recently achieved a gold-medal level performance at the International Mathematical Olympiad, considered the most prestigious mathematical competition in the world and is now available to the public. More recently, Harmonic released an application programming interface for Aristotle that has already been used by mathematicians and researchers to accelerate progress and create novel discoveries. The company also rolled out major upgrades last week, including support for plain English input (in addition to native Lean4), automated lemma generation and a streamlined terminal interface. "Aristotle's gold-medal performance at the IMO offered an early glimpse into what Mathematical Superintelligence makes possible with advanced reasoning and formal verification together in a single system," explains Tudor Achim, chief executive officer of Harmonic. "This funding allows us to advance that foundation even further and faster, while aggressively deploying Aristotle across industries where reliability is critical." The Series C funding round was led by Ribbit Capital Management, with Sequoia Capital Operations, Index Ventures Management, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Emerson Collective also participating. "The Harmonic team is achieving extraordinary success in showing how MSI can accelerate progress in mathematics and other quantitative fields and Aristotle, even in its early form, already gives us a glimpse towards the better future we will all be in once advanced reasoning and formal verification fully merge," said Vlad Tenev, co-founder and executive chairman of Harmonic.

Robinhood CEO's math-focused AI startup Harmonic valued at $1.45 billion in latest fundraising

AI startup Harmonic, co-founded by Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, secured $120 million at a $1.45 billion valuation to combat AI "hallucinations." The company's "Mathematical Superintelligence" (MSI) focuses on advanced, verifiable reasoning, aiming for error-free AI. This funding will power model training for safety-critical industries. Harmonic, an artificial intelligence startup co-founded by Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, has raised $120 million in new funding, valuing the company at $1.45 billion, as it tackles AI "hallucinations" - or incorrect or nonsensical answers - by improving the ability to reason. The Series C round for the pre-revenue startup was led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from existing investors Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins. Laurene Powell Jobs' investment firm Emerson Collective joined as a new backer. The deal marks the company's third major fundraising in 14 months, bringing its total capital raised to $295 million, highlighting strong investor interest in startups trying to make AI more accurate and reliable, even before they have commercial products. Harmonic is developing what it calls "Mathematical Superintelligence" (MSI), a form of AI focused on advanced reasoning that it claims is free of hallucinations and other factual errors that plague many generative AI models. It says its flagship model, Aristotle, trained on synthetic math proofs - computer-generated examples used to teach problem-solving - achieved a top-level performance at the International Mathematical Olympiad in July alongside Google and OpenAI, a win that CEO Tudor Achim said helped attract investor interest. Founded in 2023, Harmonic says it can achieve this by using formal reasoning, requiring its AI to output its reasoning as computer code in the Lean4 programming language, which can be checked for correctness. The bulk of the new funding will go toward the immense computing power required for training its models, according to Achim. By focusing on verifiable, error-free logic, Harmonic says it aims to build trust for AI in safety-critical industries like aerospace and finance, where mistakes can have severe consequences. "The elimination of hallucinations comes directly from the fact that we require our system to output reasoning as code instead of reasoning as English," CEO Tudor Achim said in an interview. Harmonic currently offers its Aristotle model to the public via a free API, a tool that lets developers plug the model into their own software. The company said mathematicians and researchers have been using the tool to check complex proofs and accelerate novel discoveries. Achim said it will explore commercialization in the future. "I think there are certain areas of software development where safety and reliability are paramount," he said, adding there is also demand from safety-critical sectors such as automotive and aerospace.