# AI21 Labs AI21 Labs is an Israeli AI company founded in 2017, known for developing large language models like Jurassic and Jamba, and the AI writing assistant Wordtune. AI21 Labs is an Israeli technology company specializing in natural language processing (NLP) and the development of artificial intelligence systems that can understand and generate human language. Founded in November 2017 in Tel Aviv, the company has become a notable player in the field of [generative AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai), producing large language models and consumer-facing writing tools. Its product lineup includes the Wordtune writing assistant and the Jurassic and Jamba families of AI models, which are used in enterprise and research applications. The company was established by three co-founders: Yoav Shoham, a professor emeritus of computer science at Stanford University; Ori Goshen, a serial entrepreneur; and Amnon Shashua, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-founder of Mobileye. AI21 Labs operates with a dual leadership structure, with Shoham and Goshen serving as co-CEOs and Shashua as chairman. The company's mission centers on making AI systems more accessible, reliable, and capable of complex reasoning, positioning itself as a competitor to other AI research organizations such as [OpenAI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai) and [Anthropic](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/anthropic). ## Early History and Funding AI21 Labs was founded in November 2017, but it remained relatively quiet for its first two years, focusing on research and product development. In January 2019, the company raised $9.5 million in a seed funding round, which provided initial capital to build its NLP technology. The first major product launch came on October 27, 2020, with the introduction of Wordtune, an AI-based writing assistant that understands context and suggests paraphrases and rewrites. Wordtune quickly gained traction, and in 2021 Google named it one of its favorite browser extensions of the year. In August 2021, AI21 Labs expanded its offerings with the launch of AI21 Studio, a platform for developers to build custom language AI applications. That same month, the company released Jurassic-1, a natural language processing system with a token vocabulary of over 250,000, making it one of the largest language models at the time. The rapid product development was supported by a series of funding rounds: in November 2021, Walden Catalyst announced a $20 million investment, and later that month AI21 Labs completed a $25 million Series A round led by Pitango First. In July 2022, the company raised $64 million in a Series B round led by Ahren, with participation from Amnon Shashua, Walden Catalyst, Pitango, TPY Capital, and Mark Leslie. ## Product Evolution: Wordtune and Jurassic Models Wordtune remained a central product for AI21 Labs, evolving from a simple paraphrasing tool to a more comprehensive writing assistant. On January 17, 2023, the company launched Wordtune Spices, a generative AI feature that generates a range of text options to enhance sentences, such as adding examples, statistics, or analogies. This feature leveraged the company's underlying language models to provide more creative and contextually relevant suggestions. The Jurassic series of models represented AI21 Labs' core research output. Jurassic-1, released in August 2021, was a transformer-based model with a large vocabulary and strong performance on various NLP tasks. On March 9, 2023, the company announced Jurassic-2, which claimed better response times, support for more languages, and advanced instruction following. These models were made available through AI21 Studio, allowing businesses and developers to integrate them into their applications. ## Jamba and Hybrid Architecture A significant technical milestone came on March 29, 2024, when AI21 Labs released Jamba, an open-weights large language model built on a hybrid architecture that combines Mamba (a state space model) with a transformer, using a mixture of experts (MoE) approach. Jamba supported context lengths up to 256,000 tokens, which was notably longer than many contemporary models. This hybrid design aimed to improve efficiency and performance, particularly for long-context tasks. In September 2024, AI21 Labs partnered with [Amazon Web Services](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/amazon-web-services) (AWS) to make its Jamba 1.5 family of models available on Amazon Bedrock, a managed service for deploying AI models in enterprise applications. This partnership allowed businesses to integrate Jamba into their workflows with the security and scalability of AWS. In March 2025, AI21 Labs released Jamba 1.6 for private enterprise deployment, claiming it outperformed other open models across multiple benchmarks. The same month, the company launched Maestro, an AI planning and orchestration system designed to improve the accuracy of models like GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet in complex, multi-step tasks. ## Funding and Growth AI21 Labs continued to attract significant investment, reflecting the growing demand for AI technologies. On August 31, 2023, the company announced the closing of a $155 million Series C financing round. This round included previous investors such as Walden Catalyst, Pitango, and Amnon Shashua, as well as new investors like [Google](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/google-deepmind) and Nvidia. The funding was intended to accelerate research and development, expand the team, and scale the company's products to a broader market. The company's growth trajectory mirrors the broader boom in [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence) investment, with AI21 Labs positioning itself as a key player in the race to develop more capable and efficient language models. As of 2025, the company has offices in Tel Aviv, New York, and other locations, and its workforce includes researchers, engineers, and product specialists from around the world. ## Leadership and Advisors The leadership of AI21 Labs is a blend of academic and entrepreneurial expertise. Amnon Shashua, the chairman and co-founder, is a prominent figure in the Israeli tech ecosystem, known for his work in computer vision and his role in founding Mobileye, a company acquired by Intel. Ori Goshen and Yoav Shoham, the co-CEOs, bring experience in both academia and business. Shoham, in particular, is a well-known AI researcher with a background in multi-agent systems and game theory. The company also maintains a distinguished advisory board, which includes academics from leading institutions. Notable advisors include Dan Jurafsky, a professor of linguistics and computer science at Stanford University; Christopher Ré, an associate professor in the Stanford AI Lab; Sebastian Thrun, a Stanford professor and co-founder of Udacity; and Shai Shalev-Shwartz, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. These advisors provide guidance on research directions and technical strategy. ## Technology and Research Focus AI21 Labs focuses on several key areas within NLP and AI. The company's research spans large language model architecture, instruction following, and efficient inference. The development of Jamba, with its hybrid Mamba-transformer design, highlights a trend toward more efficient models that can handle long contexts without excessive computational cost. The company also emphasizes the practical deployment of AI in enterprise settings, as seen in its partnerships with AWS and its focus on private deployment options. In addition to language models, AI21 Labs has explored AI planning and orchestration with Maestro, which aims to improve the reliability of AI systems in complex tasks. This aligns with the broader industry movement toward agentic AI, where models not only generate text but also plan and execute multi-step actions. ## Impact and Position in the AI Landscape AI21 Labs has established itself as a significant player in the global AI landscape, particularly in the realm of large language models. Its products, such as Wordtune, have reached millions of users, and its models are used by developers and enterprises worldwide. The company's emphasis on open weights for models like Jamba has contributed to the open-source AI community, offering alternatives to proprietary models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. The company's success also highlights the growing role of Israel in the AI industry, with AI21 Labs being one of the most prominent AI startups in the country. Its partnerships with major cloud providers and investors like Google and Nvidia underscore its credibility and potential for further growth. ## See Also - [OpenAI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai) - [Generative AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai) - [Large language model](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model) - [Transformer](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/transformer) ## References This article is based on publicly available information from company announcements, press releases, and media reports. For specific details, refer to the sources cited in the original Wikipedia article. --- Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/ai21-labs License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Last updated: 2026-09-05T13:21:59.632007+00:00