An Adobe sign hangs along Main Street during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 27, 2025 in Park City, Utah.
David Becker | Getty Images
LONDON — Adobe has invested in Synthesia, a British artificial intelligence startup, in a bet that the technology will transform video production.
Synthesia told CNBC that Adobe’s venture capital arm injected an undisclosed amount of funds into the startup as part of a “strategic” partnership, without elaborating further on financial and commercial terms.
The startup, which says it serves more than 70% of the Fortune 100, sells a platform that businesses can use to develop videos with life-like avatars generated by AI. Individuals can make their own AI avatars, either at one of Synthesia’s production studios or on a personal device.
Adobe, a creative technology powerhouse valued at roughly $150 billion, is best known for the Photoshop image editing tool. The company also makes Premiere Pro, a video editing platform widely used by professionals in broadcast media, advertising and other industries.
“We’re building the world’s leading AI video platform for enterprise, and Adobe’s investment validates that direction,” Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli told CNBC. “We share a vision: democratizing high-quality content creation and making enterprise communication faster and more effective.”
It’s not the first time Adobe has placed a big bet on a venture-backed startup. It previously tried to acquire design platform Figma for $20 billion, but called the deal off following scrutiny from European Union and U.K. regulators. Adobe is also an active venture investor, backing startups such as Captions and VidMob.
Profitability ‘not an immediate focus’
In addition to the investment from Adobe, Synthesia also announced that it hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) — a measure of annual revenue generated from subscriptions that renew each year.
“We’ve grown approximately 100% year-over-year, driven by strong customer expansion and best-in-class unit economics,” Riparbelli said.“Surpassing $100 million in ARR puts us in a very small group of AI-native companies with real commercial traction.”
The startup remains lossmaking, however — and is not focusing on making a profit anytime soon.
In 2023, Synthesia reported a pre-tax loss of £25.2 million on revenues of £25.7 million, according to a U.K. Companies House filing. Profitability is “not an immediate focus,” Riparbelli told CNBC. “But the path is clear.”
Synthesia was most recently valued at $2.1 billion in an investment round announced in January. Its rivals include Colossyan, DeepBrain AI, Invideo AI, Filmora and Veed.io. The startup also faces competition from OpenAI, whose text-to-video model Sora can create realistic video clips based on user prompts.
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he poses next to a sign before a family photo at a world leaders’ summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a U.S.-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Oct. 13, 2025.
Suzanne Plunkett | Reuters
This might not be Christmas, but the war in the Middle East is over — at least according to U.S. President Donald Trump.
On Monday, Trump declared at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that the “long and painful nightmare” was finally over for both the Israelis and Palestinians. More straightforwardly, Trump gave an unequivocal “yes” when asked by reporters if the war in the Middle East has ended, Reuters reported.
Broadcom, meanwhile, surged almost 10% after it jointly announced a partnership with — who else? — OpenAI to build and deploy custom chips. But where this puts Nvidia, OpenAI’s other near and dear one, and on whose chips the ChatGPT maker relies, remains a question.
Though Christmas has yet to arrive, OpenAI is starting to look like the tech sector’s Santa Claus, who has his sack full of presents — and, more importantly, cash, according to Oracle.
— CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.
What you need to know today
And finally…
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Argentina’s President Javier Milei during the 80th United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, New York, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.
In a move that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday on social media site X, the U.S. is providing a $20 billion currency swap line with Argentina’s central bank — essentially exchanging stable U.S. dollars with volatile pesos.
The move comes amid liquidity concerns in Argentina that threatened stability for the country as it faces key midterm elections. There are equal parts economic and political stakes with the venture, which marks the first U.S. intervention of this nature since rescuing Mexico in 1995.
Google will invest $15 billion to build data center capacity for a new artificial intelligence hub in southern India, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian announced at an event Tuesday.
The investment will roll out over the next five years, and will be Google’s largest AI hub in the world outside of the U.S, Kurian added.
Earlier on Monday, the Minister for Human Resources Development of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Nara Lokesh, put the 1-gigawatt project at $10 billion.
The deal comes after “a year of intense discussions and relentless effort,” and “is just the beginning,” Lokesh said in a post on the social media platform X.
The Indian outlet Economic Times previously reported that the investment would be made by Google’s Indian subsidiary Raiden Infotech, which plans to develop three campuses across the city of Visakhapatnam.
According to another report from ET on Tuesday, state officials planned to continue doubling down on such projects and to significantly scale up the state’s computing capacity over the next three years.
Companies are amping up investments in infrastructure to keep pace with surging global demand for cloud services as AI services become increasingly popular.
As part of its second-quarter earnings in July, Google increased its forecast for capital expenditures in 2025 to $85 billion, up from $75 billion in February, due to “strong and growing demand for our Cloud products and services.”
That same month, the company also announced plans to invest $25 billion in data center and artificial intelligence infrastructure over the next two years in states across the biggest electric grid in the U.S.
India is increasingly attracting multinational players, such as Microsoft and AWS, to invest in the country’s cloud and AI infrastructure.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while World leaders listen during a summit of European and Middle Eastern leaders on Gaza on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
This might not be Christmas, but the war in the Middle East is over — at least according to U.S. President Donald Trump.
On Monday, Trump declared at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that the “long and painful nightmare” was finally over for both the Israelis and Palestinians. More straightforwardly, Trump gave an unequivocal “yes” when asked by reporters if the war in the Middle East has ended, Reuters reported.
Broadcom, meanwhile, surged almost 10% after it jointly announced a partnership with — who else? — OpenAI to build and deploy custom chips. But where this puts Nvidia, OpenAI’s other near and dear one, and on whose chips the ChatGPT maker relies, remains a question.
Though Christmas has yet to arrive, OpenAI is starting to look like the tech sector’s Santa Claus.
— CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.
What you need to know today
War in the Middle East is over, Trump says. At Israel’s parliament, Trump gave a speech in which he said that the “long and painful nightmare” for both the Israelis and Palestinians was over. He also urged, at a separate event, for leaders to put “old feuds” behind.
Broadcom joins the OpenAI party. The two companies announced Monday that they’re planning to develop and deploy OpenAI-designed chips, amounting to 10 gigawatts, starting late next year. Shares of Broadcom popped almost 10% on the news.
JPMorgan says it will invest $10 billion in critical industries. The four areas of focus — which the bank considers crucial to U.S. security — are: defense and aerospace, “frontier” technologies such as AI, energy technology and supply chain and advanced manufacturing.
[PRO] European sectors less affected by trade war. The continent isn’t in the crosshairs of Trump’s latest tariffs, but a weakening U.S. dollar could affect Europe’s exports. UBS picks three sectors more shielded from that — leaving out a notable one.
And finally…
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Argentina’s President Javier Milei during the 80th United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, New York, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.
In a move that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday on social media site X, the U.S. is providing a $20 billion currency swap line with Argentina’s central bank — essentially exchanging stable U.S. dollars with volatile pesos.
The move comes amid liquidity concerns in Argentina that threatened stability for the country as it faces key midterm elections. There are equal parts economic and political stakes with the venture, which marks the first U.S. intervention of this nature since rescuing Mexico in 1995.