On May 21, San Francisco-based Hark announced a Series A round of over $700 million, giving it a post-money valuation of $6 billion. The company has only 70 employees, translating to roughly $85 million per employee—a staggering figure even by AI startup standards.
More striking than the valuation is the investor list: NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm all appear on the same cap table. The round was led by Parkway Venture Capital, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Brookfield, ARK Invest, Greycroft, Prime Movers Lab, Tamarack Global, and Align Ventures.
It is unusual for four chipmakers that typically compete fiercely in the GPU, CPU, and accelerator markets to jointly back the same AI hardware startup.
Founder: Brett Adcock's Third Startup
Brett Adcock is a well-known figure in AI circles. His first company, Vettery, a recruitment platform, was acquired by Adecco in 2018 for nearly $100 million. His second, Archer Aviation, an eVTOL aircraft maker, went public via SPAC in 2021. His third, Figure AI, a humanoid robotics firm, was valued at $39 billion last year.
Rather than resting on his laurels, Adcock launched Hark in late 2025 with $100 million of his own money. Six months later, he has added $700 million in external funding.
What Hark Is Building: A 'Universal AI Interface'
Hark describes itself as building "a universal interface between humans and machines"—a new device that lets users interact with AI without typing, tapping, or swiping. The company has not revealed the product's form factor.
Its roadmap has two phases:
- This summer: Release a proprietary multimodal AI model as a software layer compatible with existing phones and computers.
- Later: Launch dedicated hardware designed for that model.
Hark has already built a data center running NVIDIA's B200 GPUs (Blackwell generation), which accounts for much of its capital expenditure.
Key Hire: iPhone's Lead Designer
Hark's design team is led by Abidur Chowdhury, formerly Apple's lead iPhone designer. In an interview with TechCrunch, he said:
"I haven't seen anything that feels like something that will really help like the normal person."
Chowdhury's comment reflects the struggles of AI hardware startups: Humane Ai Pin failed, Rabbit R1 fizzled, and Friend's necklace was widely panned. Apple designers leaving for AI hardware is not new, but only Hark and Jony Ive's venture with Sam Altman (io) have managed to recruit a lead iPhone designer—and neither has shipped a product yet.
Why All Four Chipmakers Invested
NVIDIA's participation is unsurprising—Jensen Huang has invested $40 billion in AI companies this year. Qualcomm Ventures' involvement also makes sense, given its focus on on-device inference.
But AMD and Intel joining the same round is unusual. Both are fierce rivals to NVIDIA in the AI accelerator market—AMD's MI400 competes with H200, and Intel has been working on its 18A process for years. They rarely share a customer, let alone an investment.
The most plausible explanation: each wants a foothold in the next personal smart device. The smartphone market is settled—Apple uses its own chips, Android uses Qualcomm. If a new AI hardware category emerges, no one wants to miss out. Betting on Hark is betting on Adcock's ability to deliver.
Is a $6B Valuation Justified for 70 People?
Hark's valuation is one of the most expensive private deals in AI hardware over the past year. A comparison:
- Hark: 70 employees, no product yet → $6B
- Figure AI: Humanoid robots in production → $39B
- Humane: Liquidated, once valued at $850M
- Friend.com: Necklace device on sale → ~$50M
Hark is valued at seven times Humane's peak, yet Humane at least had a physical product. Hark has not even revealed its form factor.
But investors are betting on Adcock's track record. He has twice built companies that seemed impossible. Whether Hark becomes the next interface after the iPhone or another artifact in the tech graveyard will become clearer this summer with its model and next year with its hardware.
Sources: Hark raises $700M Series A for its secretive 'universal' AI interface (TechCrunch); CocoLoop; AI Hardware Startup Hark Valued at $6 Billion in New Funding Round (Bloomberg); Hark Raises $700M Series A at a $6B Valuation (BusinessWire)