AI startup Odyssey has rapidly emerged as a key player in the race to build “world models,” securing major backing from Big Tech and chipmakers as investors bet on AI that understands and simulates the physical world.

Founded in 2023 by self‑driving vehicle veterans Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, Odyssey set out to gather real‑world visual data in a way reminiscent of Google Earth, sending people out “with cameras strapped to their backs” to capture environments for training its models.¹ These models aim to recreate physical spaces with accurate physics, enabling uses from video‑game creation to robotics and rich, interactive video generated from text prompts.¹

On June 17, 2026, the company’s strategy was validated by a $310 million Series B round that pushed its valuation to $1.45 billion.¹ The round was led by Natural Capital and drew in a roster of prominent backers, including Amazon, AMD Ventures, GV and other major investors.¹ The Financial Times highlighted Amazon’s role, noting that the tech giant “backs AI start-up developing models to simulate physical world,” and joined the investment arms of Nvidia and AMD in the deal.²

Following the funding, Odyssey designated Amazon Web Services as its preferred cloud provider and committed to optimizing its world models for AWS’s Trainium chips, positioning itself in the competitive landscape against Nvidia’s AI hardware.¹ TechCrunch framed the raise as a milestone for a company in a category it called “world model maker Odyssey,” emphasizing that such models are seen as “the next big thing in AI beyond text- and chat-based large language models.”¹

Together, the coverage from technology and financial outlets underscores a shared narrative: Odyssey is not just another AI startup, but a bet by cloud and chip giants on a future where AI can accurately reason about and recreate the physical world.