Sony and Universal ask US court to force Suno investor Lightspeed to testify
Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group have asked a federal court in Boston to order venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners to hand over documents and answer questions about AI music company Suno. The labels filed their opposition to Lightspeed’s bid to cancel the subpoena, a legally binding order to give evidence, on 13 October, according to Music Business Worldwide.
At the centre is a document Lightspeed has already produced. The labels want a company representative to explain what it meant by the “legal risk of training data”. Training data is the existing music and other material used to teach an AI model how to generate new songs.
The narrowed request focuses on a section headed “Risks”. That covers “regulation around training data and/or label lawsuits”. The same document also discusses a “two sided music platform”, the filing says.
Lightspeed is no bystander. It led Suno’s USD $125 million Series B funding round in May 2024, a private investment to help a young company grow, and holds a seat on Suno’s board. It invested again in Suno’s Series C round in November 2025 and Series D round in June 2026, after the labels had sued Suno for copyright infringement.
That last round was large. Suno’s Series D raised more than $400 million at a $5.4 billion valuation, the price tag put on the whole company for the investment.
This is the second round of the paper fight. Lightspeed produced 152 documents in October 2025 in response to an earlier subpoena from the labels. That production only covered documents up to 6 June 2025.
Sony and Universal served a new subpoena on 24 August. It seeks documents dated from 7 June 2025 onwards, plus a deposition, a formal interview given under oath. Lightspeed refused to provide any documents or testimony. It filed a motion to quash, a formal request to throw out the subpoena, in the Northern District of California on 16 September.
That motion was transferred on 2 October to the District of Massachusetts. Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV is overseeing the labels’ 2024 lawsuit against Suno in that court.
Why do the labels want the investor’s files? They argue the material is relevant to Suno’s fair use defence, the legal argument that use of copyrighted work is allowed in certain circumstances, and to whether Suno’s alleged infringement was wilful. Wilfulness matters because deliberate infringement can affect damages.
What makes this turn worth watching is who is being asked to talk. Copyright cases are usually fought between the rights holder and the accused user. Here two majors want the startup’s best-known backer to explain, on the record, what risk it saw around training data and lawsuits.
