AI21 Labs
AI21 Labs is an Israeli language-artificial-intelligence company developing foundation models, developer infrastructure, and writing and knowledge-work applications.
Last updated August 27, 2026
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Overview
AI21 Labs is an Israeli artificial-intelligence company focused on natural-language processing, foundation models, and software for language-intensive work. Founded in Tel Aviv in November 2017 by computer scientist Yoav Shoham, entrepreneur Ori Goshen, and artificial-intelligence researcher Amnon Shashua, the company was established to develop systems capable of understanding, generating, and manipulating natural language. Its business has combined proprietary model research with products for developers, enterprises, and individual users. The company first became widely visible through Wordtune, an AI writing assistant launched in October 2020. Wordtune applies language models to rewriting, paraphrasing, editing, and improving written expression. It helped establish AI21 Labs as both a model developer and a consumer-facing software company; Google later selected Wordtune as one of its preferred browser extensions of 2021. AI21 Labs subsequently introduced AI21 Studio in August 2021, providing developers with access to language models and tools for incorporating text generation and understanding into applications. AI21 Labs expanded its model portfolio with Jurassic-1 in 2021 and Jurassic-2 in 2023. These models were designed for natural-language generation, instruction following, multilingual use cases, and broader text-processing workflows. The company’s platform and models have supported use cases including summarization, question answering, information extraction, content generation, rewriting, and retrieval-augmented generation. Its positioning has therefore extended beyond a single chatbot: AI21 Labs combines model development, application programming interfaces, enterprise services, and end-user products. In March 2024, AI21 Labs released Jamba, an open-weights model built around a hybrid architecture combining Mamba state-space components with Transformer layers and mixture-of-experts techniques. The model was presented as a way to handle long contexts with comparatively efficient inference. Jamba 1.5 later became available through Amazon Web Services’ Amazon Bedrock service, broadening its route into enterprise application development. In March 2025, the company announced Jamba 1.6 for private enterprise deployment and introduced Maestro, an AI planning and orchestration system intended to improve performance on complex tasks when used with external foundation models. AI21 Labs has raised private funding from investors including Pitango First, Walden Catalyst, Ahren, TPY Capital, Mark Leslie, Google, and Nvidia. Because it is privately held, reliable public information about revenue, profitability, customer counts, and current market share is limited. The company’s public identity is best understood as that of a specialist language-AI provider serving developers and organizations, while retaining consumer reach through Wordtune.
History
AI21 Labs was founded in Tel Aviv in November 2017 by Yoav Shoham, Ori Goshen, and Amnon Shashua. The founders combined academic and commercial experience in artificial intelligence, computer science, and language technologies. The company’s initial objective was to develop systems that could understand and generate natural language more reliably, then make those capabilities useful through software products and developer services. AI21 Labs raised a $9.5 million seed round in January 2019. Its first widely identified product was Wordtune, launched on October 27, 2020. The writing assistant used language technology to suggest paraphrases and rewrites while considering the surrounding context. Wordtune gave the company an accessible consumer product and demonstrated an application for its underlying language models. Google subsequently named it one of its favorite extensions of 2021. In August 2021, AI21 Labs launched AI21 Studio, a platform intended to give developers access to the company’s language models and associated tools. During the same month, it introduced Jurassic-1, a natural-language-processing system with a vocabulary exceeding 250,000 tokens. The platform-and-model approach enabled AI21 Labs to serve application developers and businesses in addition to individual writers. The company attracted further private capital as demand for generative AI increased. Walden Catalyst announced a $20 million investment in November 2021, and AI21 Labs completed a $25 million Series A round led by Pitango First later that month. In July 2022, it raised a Series B round led by Ahren, with participation from Amnon Shashua, Walden Catalyst, Pitango, TPY Capital, and Mark Leslie. In August 2023, the company announced a $155 million Series C financing round involving previous investors and new participants including Google and Nvidia. AI21 Labs continued model development with Jurassic-2, announced in March 2023. The company described the successor as improving response speed, multilingual capabilities, and instruction following. It also introduced Wordtune Spices in January 2023, extending its writing product with generative options for enhancing sentences. On March 29, 2024, AI21 Labs released Jamba. The model used a hybrid design combining Mamba state-space modeling with Transformer layers and mixture-of-experts techniques. AI21 Labs positioned the architecture around long-context processing and inference efficiency, and distributed the model with open weights. In September 2024, the Jamba 1.5 family became available through Amazon Web Services’ Amazon Bedrock service, allowing organizations to access it within a managed cloud-development environment. In March 2025, AI21 Labs announced Jamba 1.6 for private enterprise deployment and launched Maestro, an orchestration and planning system intended to improve the handling of complex tasks with external models. The company remains privately held. Public sources identify its principal leadership as chairman and co-founder Amnon Shashua and co-CEOs and co-founders Ori Goshen and Yoav Shoham. Publicly available information does not establish current revenue, profitability, customer totals, or market share.
- 2025
Jamba 1.6 and Maestro announced
[1]AI21 Labs introduces a private-deployment model update and a separate planning and orchestration system.
- 2024
Jamba launches
[3]The company releases an open-weights hybrid Mamba-Transformer language model designed for long contexts.
- 2024
Jamba 1.5 reaches Amazon Bedrock
[1]The Jamba 1.5 family becomes available through AWS’s managed generative-AI platform.
- 2023
Jurassic-2 launches
[1]AI21 Labs announces a model generation emphasizing speed, multilingual performance, and instruction following.
- 2023
Series C financing
[1]AI21 Labs announces a reported $155 million Series C round involving Google and Nvidia.
- 2022
Series B financing
[1]The company raises a reported $64 million Series B led by Ahren.
- 2021
AI21 Studio and Jurassic-1 launch
[1]The company introduces its developer platform and Jurassic-1 language model.
- 2021
Series A financing
[1]AI21 Labs completes a reported $25 million Series A led by Pitango First.
- 2020
Wordtune launches
[1]AI21 Labs launches its first product, Wordtune, an AI-assisted rewriting and writing tool.
- 2019
Seed financing
[1]The company raises a reported $9.5 million seed round.
Products and positioning
A specialist provider of language-AI models, developer infrastructure, and enterprise applications for generation, reasoning, retrieval, and text transformation.
Writing-assistance software · 2020
Wordtune
Wordtune is AI21 Labs’ user-facing writing assistant. Launched in 2020, it uses language models to offer paraphrases, rewrites, editing suggestions, and alternative ways to express an idea. The product brought the company’s language technology to individual writers and knowledge workers, complementing its developer and enterprise offerings.
AI developer platform · 2021
AI21 Studio
AI21 Studio is a developer platform for accessing AI21 Labs language models and integrating language capabilities into applications. Its use cases include generation, summarization, question answering, text transformation, and other natural-language workflows. The platform represents the company’s API- and infrastructure-oriented route to market.
Foundation language models · 2021
Jurassic
Jurassic is AI21 Labs’ early family of large language models. Jurassic-1 was introduced in 2021 and was described as a natural-language-processing system with a large token vocabulary. Jurassic-2 followed in 2023 with stated improvements in response time, multilingual support, and instruction following.
Foundation language models · 2024
Jamba
Jamba is a family of open-weights language models built around a hybrid architecture that combines Mamba state-space components and Transformer layers with mixture-of-experts techniques. AI21 Labs designed the family for long-context processing and efficient inference. Later versions have targeted enterprise use, including private deployment and managed access through Amazon Bedrock.
AI planning and orchestration system · 2025
Maestro
Maestro is an AI planning and orchestration system announced in 2025. It is intended to break complex tasks into coordinated steps and improve the accuracy or effectiveness of external foundation models, including models used in multi-stage knowledge-work workflows.
Brand decisions
2025
Launch Maestro for complex AI workflowsProduct launchBackground
Complex AI tasks may require planning, decomposition, orchestration, and coordination among multiple model calls.
Action taken
AI21 Labs announced Maestro, a planning and orchestration system designed to improve the performance of external foundation models on complex tasks.
Aftermath
The announcement broadened AI21 Labs’ offering from model provision toward systems that coordinate models and task execution.
2024
Release the Jamba model familyGeneration changeBackground
The company pursued model architectures intended to handle long inputs while controlling inference requirements.
Action taken
AI21 Labs released Jamba with a hybrid Mamba-Transformer and mixture-of-experts architecture and open weights.
Aftermath
Jamba became a central part of AI21 Labs’ enterprise and developer model strategy and was subsequently offered through Amazon Bedrock.
2024
Distribute Jamba through Amazon BedrockStrategyBackground
Enterprise customers often consume foundation models through managed cloud platforms rather than deploying model infrastructure independently.
Action taken
AI21 Labs partnered with AWS to make the Jamba 1.5 family available on Amazon Bedrock.
Aftermath
The partnership created a managed-cloud route for integrating Jamba into enterprise applications.
2021
Build a developer platform around proprietary modelsStrategyBackground
Demand for programmable language-AI capabilities created an opportunity to serve software developers and businesses directly.
Action taken
AI21 Labs launched AI21 Studio and made its models available for application development.
Aftermath
The company developed a dual model of consumer applications and infrastructure for developers and enterprises.
2020
Launch Wordtune as a consumer writing productProduct launchBackground
AI21 Labs sought to translate its language-model research into a product that could be used directly by writers.
Action taken
The company launched Wordtune with context-aware paraphrasing and rewriting functions.
Aftermath
Wordtune expanded AI21 Labs’ public profile beyond model research and developer services.
Sources3 sources
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