Suno, the AI music generation company that has attracted a staggering 100 million users—and landed a spot on Forbes’ 2026 AI 50 list—is reportedly nearing a close of a funding round that could value it at more than $5 billion, more than double what it was valued after its last funding round in November.
Key Takeaways
- Suno is expected to close a Series D funding round in the coming weeks, Axios and Billboard reported Monday morning, which Axios reported could value the startup at more than $5 billion.
- The new funding round comes six months after Suno raised $250 million at a valuation of $2.45 billion.
- Details of the latest funding round are unclear, but Billboard reported multiple music industry investors are involved and that Suno has previously used much of the money it has raised to fund the hardware, memory and energy costs that powers its AI technology.
- The four-year-old startup has become a success despite pushback and lawsuits from the music industry, and Forbes estimated last week Suno generated $150 million in revenue in 2025, and $25 million in revenue in February alone.
- Suno’s CEO Mikey Shulman described the company as the “Ozempic of the music industry” to Forbes last week, saying “everybody’s on it and nobody wants to talk about it.”
Key Background
Since rolling out to the public in 2023, more than 100 million people have used Suno to create music and more than 2 million people have signed up as paid subscribers, the company said earlier this year. The generator allows users to enter text prompts describing the type of music they’d like to generate, and Suno’s technology responds with a song. Suno users generate more than 7 million songs—the equivalent of Spotify’s entire music catalog—every day. But Suno’s success has come with pushback from the industry, and every major record label has sued the company alleging it violated copyright law by training its AI models on copyrighted music. Warner Music Group settled its lawsuit with Suno in November, striking a partnership through which Suno will develop “new, more advanced and licensed models,” which Warner’s CEO Robert Kyncl told Forbes is a “newfound revenue” source for the label. Artists have also taken issue with Suno’s alleged copyright violations, with more than 200 high-profile musicians, including Billie Eilish and Katy Perry, urging Suno to stop training its AI on copyrighted material in an open letter two years ago. Suno, though, has defended itself from copyright claims by comparing its AI training to “listening to a lot of music and learning from it,” Shulman said to Forbes last week.
What To Watch For
It’s unclear what Suno will do after closing its latest funding round, but Shulman told Forbes last week he thinks the biggest future opportunities are developing ways for artists to connect with fans. He said an artist like Taylor Swift could release an interactive version of an album with lyrics or samples fans could access with an extra fee, or release unfinished versions of songs fans can use AI to complete. Shulman said he sees a future where there isn’t a distinction between AI-generated music and non-AI-generated songs, telling Forbes it will “all going to have AI in it somewhere” one day.
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
