Generative artificial intelligence music creation platform Suno Inc. announced today that it has raised $400 million in late-stage funding at a $5.4 billion valuation.

The Series D funding round comes almost six months after the company raised $250 million. Today’s round was led by Bond Capital, alongside IVP, Forerunner, Union Square Ventures, Alkeon and Quiet. Existing investors Matrix, Lightspeed, Menlo Ventures and Schroders Capital also participated in the round.

Suno and other AI music generators remain controversial across the industry as companies face copyright issues and creative struggles. AI music companies have faced increasing scrutiny as music labels and artists have rankled about models being trained on their work without compensation. More than 1,800 independent artists have supported class-action lawsuits against Suno and Udio Music, another generative AI music startup under the name Uncharted Labs Inc., alleging copyright infringement alongside music labels.

AI music has made quite the splash, with Spotify AG making a deal with Universal Music Group last month, allowing the music streaming service to create AI-generated covers and remixes of some of the label’s artists. This opened up a large variety of new AI features to compete with Suno and Udio.

Suno said it will use the funding to expand its platform and build better models for music creation, curate its capabilities and roll out superior services.

The company said in the coming months it would roll out its first music model developed in concert with the music industry. Suno announced a partnership with Warner Music Group in late 2025 to enhance the company’s products, including introducing content from WMG’s artists who opt in to use their names, images, likenesses, voices and compositions to be used in new AI-generated music – including the planned next generation of models.

Synthetic music has created a question of how it will intersect with culture. Some artists and users believe that human-created music will always sound and feel different from machine-generated music.

In one case, the AI-produced country tune “Walk My Walk” made headlines when it topped a Billboard chart on Spotify in November. Although many news reports hooked into the novelty, it wasn’t that notable. Digital sales aren’t a suitable representation of popularity, nor are they a good signal of current taste or attention.

For its part, Suno – and other industry hopefuls in the generative AI music domain – said that the startup has been used by professional producers and songwriters, alongside millions of people making music for the first time. The company contends that what it’s doing is bringing music into the hands of people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach that lofty height, unlocking something human through the soul of the machine.

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