Jan 9 (Reuters) - Hippocratic AI notched a valuation of $1.64 billion after its latest fund raise led by Kleiner Perkins, the VC firm that backed Google, Amazon AMZN.O, and Genentech as AI funding thrives.

The company said on Thursday it had raised $126 million in a series B funding round, which brings its total raise to $278 million in funding.

Kleiner was joined by existing investors A16z, General Catalyst, Premji, NVIDIA, SV Angel, Universal Health Services UHS.N, and WellSpan Health.

Technology-focused startups have been able to secure a chunk of investments following a boom in artificial intelligence after the launch of Open AI's ChatGPT in 2022.

Hippocratic AI was co-founded by CEO Munjal Shah alongside a group of physicians, hospital administrators, healthcare professionals, and artificial intelligence researchers from El Camino Health, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Microsoft MSFT.O, Google GOOGL.O, and NVIDIA NVDA.O.

(Reporting by Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese)

((JaiveerSingh.Shekhawat@thomsonreuters.com;))