The bulk of October鈥檚 venture funding was invested in the two leading countries for startup investment, with companies based in the U.S. and China raising $28 billion and $20.6 billion last month, respectively. The last time more than $20 billion was invested in China in a single month was June 2018, when raised $14 billion in its Series C funding.

Funding concentration

Funding concentrated in seven companies that raised billion-dollar rounds, accounting for just over 40% of October鈥檚 venture funding. These large amounts were invested in frontier labs, manufacturing, energy, semiconductors, prediction markets and spend management software. Private equity led much of this funding, along with a few multistage venture firms including , and .

鈥檚 $15.9 billion raise at a valuation of $90 billion marked the largest private funding by a Chinese tech company on record. The deal places DeepSeek among the Top 10 most highly funded private companies. It also makes it the second most highly valued Chinese company after , and the third most highly valued private frontier lab after U.S. companies and .

DeepSeek wasn鈥檛 the only Chinese frontier lab to raise big in October. , a rival open-source lab, reportedly reached a $50 billion value in October, making it the 11th most valuable private company on The Crunchbase 糖心视频. The startup has also reportedly confidentially filed to go public on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Massachusetts-based manufacturing startup raised the second-largest funding deal last month, a $2.1 billion round. The company partners with industrial companies and innovators from the product design phase to large-scale production and says it has 2.4 million square feet of manufacturing capacity.

Other large rounds last month went to , which raised $2 billion for power and grid capacity build out for data centers; spend-management platform , which raised $1.85 billion and said its ARR has reached $2 billion; open-source semiconductor company , which says it听 raised a $1.5 billion Series E funding and recently moved its听 headquarters to Silicon Valley from Canada; prediction market , which raised a $1 billion Series E; and frontier lab , which raised a $1 billion Series A.

AI-driven

A further eight companies raised rounds north of $500 million last month. They spanned industries ranging from frontier labs, robotics, legal and chips, to agentic AI and healthcare. Among the most notable was , which says it raised an $870 million Series A funding on the heels of rapid developer adoption of its decision model Jev.

A total of 66% of global funding was in AI-driven companies in October, with semiconductor companies gaining market share this past month.

Exits

The U.S. IPO market was slow in anticipation of Anthropic鈥檚 November IPO. The offering could surpass even 鈥檚 record-setting June listing .

On the M&A front, at least nine venture-backed companies were acquired for more than $1 billion last month, including 鈥檚 acquisition of 19-year-old for $2.3 billion.

Looking ahead

With two months remaining, 2026 has already set records for acquisitions, IPOs and funding rounds across major venture markets. October extended that momentum, but also highlighted how concentrated this cycle has become: Seven companies accounted for more than 40% of global funding, while AI-driven businesses captured two-thirds.

The question heading into year-end is how widely that momentum will spread, as Anthropic prepares to list in what could be the largest IPO of all time.

Related Crunchbase queries:

Methodology

The data contained in this report comes directly from Crunchbase, and is based on reported data. Data is as of Nov. 2, 2026.

is targeting a $5 billion funding that was announced in October, . This funding was not included in the October monthly totals.

Note that data lags are most pronounced at the earliest stages of venture activity, with seed funding amounts increasing significantly after the end of a quarter/year.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Glossary of funding terms

Seed and angel consists of seed, pre-seed and angel rounds. Crunchbase also includes venture rounds of unknown series, equity crowdfunding and convertible notes at $3 million (USD or as-converted USD equivalent) or less.

Early-stage consists of Series A and Series B rounds, as well as other round types. Crunchbase includes venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $3 million, and those less than or equal to $15 million.

Late-stage consists of Series C, Series D, Series E and later-lettered venture rounds following the 鈥淪eries [Letter]鈥� naming convention. Also included are venture rounds of unknown series, corporate venture and other rounds above $15 million. Corporate rounds are only included if a company has raised an equity funding at seed through a venture series funding round.

Technology growth is a private-equity round raised by a company that has previously raised a 鈥渧enture鈥� round. (So basically, any round from the previously defined stages.)

Illustration:

Crunchbase data shows that so far this year, investors have poured around $48 billion into financings around the Series B stage 1, the highest tally in years. Yet round counts are below year-ago levels and are on track for a multiyear low.

Smaller Series B rounds grow scarcer

One trend driving capital concentration is a sharp decline in small and mid-sized Series B rounds.

So far this year, less than a third of deals in our sample set听2 were for under $30 million. By contrast, between 2021 and 2025, rounds in this range accounted for about half of deals, per Crunchbase data.

The smallest Series B deals have gotten particularly scarce. This year there were just 26 rounds under $10 million in our sample set.

Big rounds still a big thing

On the flip side, really large Series B rounds are quite popular.

At least 110 companies have raised rounds of $100 million or more around this stage so far this year. That鈥檚 roughly a quarter of all deals.

Of these, the largest by far was a $12 billion round 3听蹿辞谤 , 鈥� physical AI startup that launched last year.

Model developer , led by AI pioneer , was tied for next-biggest fundraiser, closing on $1 billion in February. Nuclear energy startup also secured $1 billion in Series B funding across tranches this year, with as lead investor.

For听 a wider snapshot, below we put together a sample list of more of this year鈥檚 biggest U.S. Series B recipients.

Mostly an AI story

Meanwhile, one of the least surprising findings from our analysis of Series B recipients is that it was a heavily AI-focused group.

So far this year, about two-thirds of Series B funding has gone to AI-focused startups, per Crunchbase data. In 2025, by comparison, about half of investment went to companies in AI categories.

AI companies were also heavily represented by round count. So far in 2026, more than half of all reported U.S. Series B deals have been for AI companies.

Bullish climate for Series B

Overall, the numbers point to a bullish climate for Series B investment, particularly for AI startups with demonstrated traction. The environment looks particularly favorable for companies that have already raised considerable sums at Series A and seed.

Even so, these don鈥檛 look like the best of times for startups seeking smaller Series B rounds. Seems like in the current AI-driven cycle, investors are increasingly focused on big checks for high-valuation companies.

Related Crunchbase query:

Illustration:

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

Startup investors aren鈥檛 exactly hitting pause, but they did scale back on giant rounds this past week, with just two startup financings in the multiple hundreds of millions. The biggest round went to AI infrastructure provider , which picked up $750 million, followed by construction automation unicorn , which secured $200 million. Other sectors that attracted larger rounds this past week included biotech, insurance and AI.

1. , $750M, AI infrastructure: Modal Labs, a provider of cloud infrastructure for AI inference and other applications, secured $750 million in a Series D funding round led by at a $15.75 billion valuation. The New York-headquartered company said it recently exceeded an annual revenue run rate of $1 billion.

2. , $200M, construction tech: Austin-based Icon, a developer of robotic construction systems known for its 3D-printed homes, closed on $200 million in Series D funding led by听 and . The company says it is on pace for 4x revenue growth in 2026.

3. , $135M, RNA therapies: Boston-based Souffl茅 Therapeutics, a developer of RNA therapies, raised $135 million in Series B funding led by as part of a large syndicate of investors.

4. , $103M, gene therapies: Menlo Park, California-based Estuary Biotherapeutics, a developer of genetic medicines for patients with serious kidney diseases, launched with $103 million in financing. The funding includes $93 million in a Series A round led by as well as $10 million in previously undisclosed seed capital.

5. , $100M, AI tools: Labelbox, a developer of technology to train and evaluate AI models and to help deploy agents that improve with experience, picked up $100 million in Series E funding. led the financing for the 8-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

6. , $90M, health AI: Redwood City, California-based Suki, a provider of AI tools that turn clinical conversations into intelligence for documentation, coding and other healthcare workflows, announced a $90 million Series E financing from backers including and .

7. , $82M, caregiver platform: Abby Care, a platform for family members to become certified, paid caregivers and deliver care at home, closed on $82 million in Series C funding, per a . led the financing for the 5-year-old, San Francisco-based startup.

8. , $70M, insurance: Stand, a provider of insurance for homes in areas at higher risk of natural disasters, secured $70 million in Series C funding at a $1 billion valuation. led the financing for the 3-year-old, San Francisco-based company.

9. , $65M, semiconductor systems: Mueon Corp., a semiconductor systems company building a modular platform for AI and hyperscale computing, completed a $65 million Series A funding round. led the financing for the Portland, Oregon-based company.

10. , $60M, AI spend management: New York-based North.cloud, provider of an infrastructure spend intelligence and automation platform, raised $60 million in a Series B round led by .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Oct. 10-16, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Illustration:

Twenty-one of last month鈥檚 new unicorns are U.S. headquartered. Six new unicorns joined the board from China and three from the U.K., while Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Israel, Italy, Finland, Germany and Bulgaria each added one new unicorn.

Through September, 311 companies have joined the board so far this year, putting 2026 on track to be the second-highest year for new unicorn creation, following only the venture peak year of 2021, when counts topped 600.

Several companies already on the board stand out for significant valuation increases via new raises last month. They include San Francisco-based , developer of AI for software engineering, which saw its value climb to $48 billion, up from $26 billion only four months earlier. Data center provider was valued at $31 billion last month, up from $10 billion a year ago. And Paris-based frontier lab was valued at $24.4 billion in its more recent funding, up from $13.7 billion a year ago.

New unicorns in September

Here are September鈥檚 38 new unicorn companies:

Semiconductors

• , an Austin-based semiconductor manufacturing startup, closed a $500 million Series A at a $3.7 billion valuation, led by . The 3-year-old company builds compact chip factories and develops their manufacturing equipment internally, aiming to make semiconductor production more accessible.
• , an Irvine, California-based semiconductor company, raised a $275 million Series C, valuing it above $3 billion and bringing total funding to $415 million. , and led the round. The 2-year-old company develops digital signal processing chips for high-speed optical connectivity in AI infrastructure.
• , a Hangzhou-based AI chip developer, announced a $149 million Series C. Its IoT inference chips combine memory and computing to reduce power consumption and data movement. The 5-year-old company was valued at $1 billion.
• , a Beijing-based AI chip company, raised $298 million at a valuation of $2.2 billion. The 4-year-old company develops AI computing chips using the open RISC-V architecture.

• , a San Jose, California-based developer of specialized AI chips and software, raised a $150 million Series C at a $1.45 billion valuation, co-led by and , bringing total funding to $500 million. The proceeds for the 8-year-old company will support its software platform and next-generation hardware for robots, vehicles and drones.

Financial services

• , a Texas-based prediction-market platform, announced a strategic partnership with , which will take an equity stake following OG鈥檚 separation from . The less than 1-year-old company was valued at $5 billion. The investment amount was not disclosed; the partnership will route Robinhood event-contract trading through OG鈥檚 regulated exchange and clearing infrastructure.
• Saudi Arabia-based , a digital payments company, raised a $329.5 million Series A at a $1.85 billion valuation. Investors included , and . The 3-year-old company has processed more than $117 billion in 2 years.
• , a Nevada-based financial software company, raised a $250 million Series E at a $1.43 billion valuation led by founder and chairman . The 8-year-old company provides an AI-based investment management platform for asset and wealth managers.
• , a Miami-based remittance platform for Latino immigrants operating through , secured $200 million in financing: an $87 million Series C equity round led by valued at $1.4 billion and $113 million in debt from 鈥檚 Customer Value Fund. The 5-year-old company plans to expand to lending and add to its Latin American reach.

Space technology

• Munich-based space company raised a $450 million Series C, co-led by , and at a valuation of $2 billion. The financing for the 5-year-old company will advance its reusable Nyx spacecraft for an International Space Station mission and support development of its Storm rocket engine.
• , a Seattle-based satellite connectivity company, raised a $200 million Series C at a $1.6 billion valuation, led by , bringing total funding to approximately $300 million. The 5-year-old company enables standard Bluetooth devices to connect directly to satellites for tracking and sensor-data applications.
• Oxfordshire, U.K-based , a satellite company, secured $346 million, co-led by and, valued at $1 billion. The 11-year-old company manufactures satellites and provides infrastructure, connectivity, Earth observation and intelligence services.
• Bulgaria-based , a satellite company, raised $205 million in a round co-led by and , reaching a $1 billion valuation. The 11-year-old company has raised financing that will expand standardized spacecraft production, including new manufacturing capacity in the U.S. and Europe.

Biotechnology and medical devices

• , a Framingham, Massachusetts-based developer of treatments for Alzheimer鈥檚 disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, raised around $79 million. The 听 13-year-old company was valued at $1.9 billion. Investors were not disclosed.
• Shanghai-based , an AI drug discovery company, raised $290 million at a $1.5 billion valuation following its spinoff from . , , and co-led the round. Anew develops tools for biomolecular prediction and drug discovery; ByteDance retained a 56% stake.
• , a New York-based brain-computer interface developer, closed a $250 million Series D, bringing total funding to $430 million and reaching a valuation of approximately $1 billion. and led the round. The 5-year-old company is building a brain鈥揷omputer interface that is minimally invasive and removable.
• Toronto-based , a biotechnology company, raised $153 million at a $1 billion valuation led by the , with participation from and other investors. The 3-year-old company uses AI to identify abandoned drug candidates that could succeed under different treatment approaches. The financing will expand clinical development and support additional drug acquisitions.

AI and internet infrastructure

• , a San Francisco-based AI cloud infrastructure company, raised a $300 million Series B at a $3 billion valuation, led by . The 3-year-old company distributes AI inference workloads across different types of chips to improve performance and efficiency. It announced in March that its customers include one of the leading frontier labs.
• Helsinki-based , an AI cloud company, raised a $189 million Series B led by . The financing valued the 6-year-old company above $1 billion with total funding over $450 million. The company manages physical data centers along with its cloud platform.
• London-based , an internet infrastructure company supporting content delivery for large streaming, gaming and software companies, raised $570 million in its first external financing led by . The 15-year-old company was valued at $1.9 billion.

AI training

• , a San Francisco-based AI training-data company, raised more than $100 million led by at a $4 billion valuation, an eightfold increase from its valuation in September 2025. The 4-year-old company recruits and vets specialists who create training and evaluation data for AI developers. that participants included two frontier AI laboratories and two co-founders.
• , a San Francisco-based provider of expert-created AI training data, reached a $3.2 billion valuation in September, earlier, according to . The funding amount and lead investor were not publicly disclosed. The 1-year-old company鈥檚 datasets capture professional reasoning in fields such as software engineering, law and finance. AfterQuery was part of the Winter 2025 batch.

Robotics and autonomous driving

• , the Shanghai-based operator of Hello鈥檚 robotaxi business, raised about $100 million at a valuation close to $3 billion. fund led the round. The financing to the 1-year-old company will support a 10,000-GPU computing cluster, AI model development and commercialization of Level 4 autonomous driving.
• , a Sunnyvale, California-based robotics perception company, raised a $165 million Series C at a $1.6 billion valuation, led by . Founded by former and engineers, the 5-year-old company combines custom chips, sensors and spatial software to help robots perceive their surroundings. The financing will accelerate deployments across logistics, manufacturing and inspection applications.

Health insurance

• , a San Francisco-based health benefits company, announced a $200 million Series C at a $2.7 billion valuation. led the financing. It also includes $400 million in secondary financing for existing investors. The 7-year-old company provides a benefits platform using AI to make healthcare more affordable for small and midsize employers. The company services 5,000 businesses.
• , a San Francisco-based health benefits platform, raised a $108 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation. Investors included , , and . The 5-year-old company helps employers provide individualized health budgets for employees to select their own medical plans.

Energy and EV infrastructure

• China-based , a battery-swapping and charging company, agreed to a strategic transaction that gives a 30% stake. Geely will contribute its Yiyi battery-swapping operation and a $95 million investment. The 9-year-old company was valued around $2.4 billion.
• , an Austin-based developer of off-grid power systems for AI data centers, raised a $120 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation, led by . The less than 1-year-old company builds modular systems for renewable energy and battery systems as data-center operators seek access to electricity.

AI applications

• raised $150 million led by , at a valuation just over $2 billion. The 3-year-old company, headquartered in London with offices in Los Angeles and Mumbai, built an enterprise audiovisual content platform for media, advertising, sports and healthcare customers. The financing will support research, commercial expansion and a larger Silicon Valley presence.
• , a New York-based AI ranking and personalization company, raised a $90 million Series B at a $1.44 billion valuation, led by . The 2-year-old company鈥檚 software helps enterprises respond to customer behavior in real time, improving the relevance of recommendations.

Cybersecurity

• Rome-based , a cybersecurity company protecting connected devices and autonomous machines, raised $270 million at a $1.7 billion valuation, led by . The financing to the 8-year-old company will support U.S. and Asia-Pacific expansion and development of AI security models.
• Tel Aviv-based , a consumer cybersecurity company, raised $40 million at a $1.1 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $167 million. co-founder joined existing investors including and , among others. The 8-year-old company protects consumers against phishing, scams, malicious websites and AI-generated fraud.

AI models

• Beijing-based , a language-model startup, raised $120 million reaching a valuation of $1.4 billion. Investors include , , and . The less than 1-year-old company raised $400 million across three rounds so far this year, before releasing its first public model.
• , a San Francisco-based developer of open-weight foundation models, announced a $150 million Series B led by , and , valuing the company above $1 billion. The financing will support the 3-year-old company鈥檚 Trinity models and products for customizing and operating them.

Manufacturing and construction software

• , an AI company for manufacturing with dual headquarters in Tokyo and Chicago, raised a $114 million Series D at a $1.2 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $234 million. Investors included and . The 9-year-old company鈥檚 platform organizes design and procurement and production; the financing will deepen its technology and accelerate North American expansion.
• , a Georgia-based construction software company, secured a growth investment of $250 million led by , valuing it above $1 billion. The 17-year-old company manages construction projects, with the investment supporting its AI capability build out and commercial growth.

Defense technology

• , a Washington, D.C.-based defense company, emerged from stealth with $250 million raised across three rounds at a valuation above $1 billion. The 2-year-old company develops long-range cruise missiles with manufacturing in Texas, Germany and Israel. Backers who have led across three rounds include , , , 1, and .

Food

• , the New York-based parent of consumer food brands David Protein and HallPass, raised a $250 million Series B at a $2.25 billion valuation. and co-led the round. The financing to the 2-year-old company will expand retail distribution, develop new products and support additional brands.

Related Crunchbase unicorn lists:

• (1,901)
• (666)
• (321)
• (198)
• (119)
• (102)
• (998)
• (547)
• (258)
• (39)
• (489)

Related reading:

• Crunchbase Data: Q3 2026 Posted A Record Count Of Billion-Dollar Rounds As The Global AI Race Heats Up
• 29 Companies Joined The 糖心视频 In August, Led By AI Software And Semiconductors

Methodology

The Crunchbase 糖心视频 is a curated list that includes private unicorn companies with post-money valuations of $1 billion or more and is based on Crunchbase data. New companies are as they reach the $1 billion valuation mark as part of a funding round.

The unicorn board does not reflect internal company valuations 鈥� such as those set via a 409a process for employee stock options 鈥� as these differ from, and are more likely to be lower than, a priced funding round. We also do not adjust valuations based on investor writedowns, which change quarterly, as different investors will not value the same company consistently within the same quarter.

Funding to unicorn companies includes all private financings to companies that are tagged as unicorns, as well as those that have since graduated to .

Exits analyzed here only include the first time a company exits.

Please note that all funding values are given in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Crunchbase converts foreign currencies to U.S. dollars at the prevailing spot rate from the date funding rounds, acquisitions, IPOs and other financial events are reported. Even if those events were added to Crunchbase long after the event was announced, foreign currency transactions are converted at the historic spot price.

Illustration:

This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

As the AI startup boom progresses, investors appear to be leaving few niches unfunded. That was apparent in this week鈥檚 lineup of large funding rounds, which featured AI infrastructure providers, a foundational model developer, a content protection platform for the AI age, and other AI-focused startups among the top investment recipients.

The biggest investment, $2 billion, went to , a spinout focused on cloud and power infrastructure that is hoping to benefit from the AI buildout. Other large rounds went to , developer of a fast-growing new model, and , a quantum computing startup.

1. , $2B, cloud and power infrastructure: Axiom Solutions International, a private cloud and power infrastructure company spun out of manufacturing services provider , secured $2 billion in new financing. and provided the strategic investment by purchasing shares of Austin-based Axiom from Flex at an initial enterprise value of $37.5 billion. Flex says it plans to separate Axiom into an independent publicly traded company early next year.

2. , $870M, foundational AI: TypeSafe AI, developer of Jev, a recently launched AI model with a large and growing early following, raised $870 million in new funding with as the largest investor, according to a . also participated in the round, which reportedly set a $7.5 billion valuation for San Francisco-based TypeSafe.

3. , $475M, quantum computing: Pasadena, California-based Oratomic, a startup working on fault-tolerant quantum computers, raised $475 million in fresh funding led by , , , , and . The company previously raised $300 million in a July financing.

4. , $400M, data and content protection: SignSplit, a provider of tools for protecting, licensing and contributing real-world human data and other forms of human contribution, emerged from stealth with $400 million in seed funding. backed the round, setting a $1 billion valuation for the New York-based company, which was founded in 2024.

5. (tied) , $250M, AI for engineering: Vinci, developer of an AI computational platform for hardware engineers to design products, closed on $250 million in Series B funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. , and led the round for the Palo Alto, California-based company.

5. (tied) , $250M, micro-manufacturing: Emeryville, California-based Atomic Machines, a startup working on AI-native digital manufacturing systems to build micro-machines directly from code, emerged from stealth and said it has raised $250 million to date from a long list of investors.

7. , $225M, energy distribution: Voltus, provider of a distributed energy platform aimed at bolstering grid flexibility, picked up $225 million in Series D funding. , and led the financing for the San Francisco-based startup.

8. (tied) , $200M, fusion: Knoxville, Tennessee-based Type One Energy, a developer of fusion energy technology, secured $200 million in Series B financing led by and .

8. (tied) , $200M, insurance: Ledgebrook, an AI-powered specialty insurance platform, closed on $200 million in equity financing co-led by and . The round brings total funding to date for Boston-based Ledgebrook to around $315 million, per .

8. (tied) , $200M, AI evaluation: Arena, provider of a platform for evaluating AI models, pulled in $200 million in Series B funding and said it has exceeded a $100 million annual revenue run rate. and led the round, which set a $3.1 billion valuation for the company.

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Oct. 3-9, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

European AI-focused startups raised $23 billion in the first half of 2026, up 130% year over year and accounting for 55% of the region鈥檚 venture funding, according to a joint Crunchbase and HumanX . That investment surge is sharpening a question at the heart of the sovereign AI debate: Where should countries concentrate their resources to capture the technology鈥檚 economic value and retain control over their data?

But sovereignty does not require owning every layer of the AI stack, according to two executives I spoke with onstage at the conference: founder and CEO and , 鈥檚 chief product and technology officer.

Their perspectives from Europe and the United Arab Emirates, respectively, pointed to opportunities in specialized chips and applications and underscored how purchasing decisions, government mandates and access to computing power can determine whether AI ambitions translate into growth.

Five-layered cake

, CEO and president of chip giant , has detailed a 鈥溾�� to deliver AI that includes听 energy, chips, infrastructure, models and applications.

For Del Maffeo, whose company develops chips for inference, the opportunity lies in the semiconductor layer, as more AI processing moves beyond centralized data centers and onto devices.

鈥淎rtificial intelligence will expand from cloud computing, from centralized data centers, to devices closer to us in the physical world,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o enable this, you need specific chips which can run efficiently, at a lower cost, to connect these networks that today are running in the cloud. We are here to solve this problem.鈥�

Five-year-old Axelera AI has two generations of chips it sells to around 600 customers. The company next plans to expand to products for decentralized cloud computing.

AI transformation

Abu Dhabi-based AI71 partners with large organizations and government agencies to help them benefit from AI transformations.

The United Arab Emirates has the largest compute per capita in the world and has a three-month mandate for every government agency to set up agentic processes for its citizens, according to Ghissassi. Energy is abundant and cheap. Over the next two years, the goal is to reach half of every citizen鈥檚 interactions with the government with an AI agent, he said.

Competing at the model layer does not make sense, said Ghissassi. He believes there will be two, three or four companies that can afford to be in the race, given the amount of capital required and the fact that it commoditizes very quickly.

The application layer is the one that is really important, for sovereignty where you want to own your data, said Ghissassi, who previously led product development at . 鈥淵ou want to make sure that it stays with you, be it that you鈥檙e a government or an enterprise. If you鈥檙e giving away your trade secrets and know-how, nobody stops whoever is being a provider to you today, from replacing you.鈥�

In the UAE, 鈥渨hat helps is the mandate, the pace at which things happen, the availability of compute, both in terms of sovereign clouds, or on-prem, or global clouds, and then the amount of capital that is being invested to help transform these companies to benefit from these technologies,鈥� Ghissassi said.

By contrast, Europe struggles as it is a net importer of energy. It has strengths in the semiconductor industry but lacks all the real compute for AI, in neural networks and frontier labs.

鈥淲e should not be obsessed with controlling the entire stack,鈥� said Del Maffeo. In Europe we have to create value instead of just paying for a service, he added. 鈥�Creating value means creating a wealthy economy.鈥�

Europe鈥檚 strengths include its large pools of research talent and its population of 440 million people who can benefit from AI. However, the culture of large businesses purchasing from startups is less established, meaning it doesn鈥檛 have the same flywheel for growth seen in the U.S., said Del Maffeo.

鈥淲hat worries me is that we are a little bit lagging behind, and therefore we are missing this value creation, and this will weaken the economies of Europe,鈥� he said.

Related Crunchbase query:

Related reading:

• Europe Posted Its Strongest Venture Funding Quarter In 4 Years As UK Gains, M&A Holds Up

Illustration:

She later became a general partner at , where she led early institutional investments in AI chipmaker , and later invested at . Now she鈥檚 founder and managing partner of , a $52 million fund backing startups that use AI to do work in industries such as construction, industrials and insurance.

In an interview with Crunchbase News, Venkatachalam discusses why she looks beyond familiar founder profiles, what makes an AI company durable, and how an early investment in Groq shaped her approach.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

You invested at Khosla Ventures before starting Axiom. What did you take from that experience, and what did you want to do differently?

Venkatachalam: One thing I took was 鈥檚 open view of where great founders can come from. Silicon Valley has gravitated toward a fairly narrow idea of who can build the next great AI company: Someone with a computer science or machine learning background, or experience at . We鈥檙e looking for more nonobvious founders, particularly in nonobvious industries.

The other thing was how we think about risk. Instead of asking a company every conceivable diligence question, we focus on the risks that matter for its next set of milestones. Can this team do what it says it will do? And if it can, could the result be massive?

That means accepting that many bets won鈥檛 work out while aiming for the outliers. I think that鈥檚 what my investors are backing me to do: identify categories of the future, rather than participate in the categories everyone already recognizes.

At Axiom, the biggest difference is that we鈥檝e built the firm around people who are actively working with AI. If you aren鈥檛 building, productizing, pricing or taking AI to market regularly, it鈥檚 very hard to keep up. Our team includes people doing exactly that in their other roles. They help keep our investment thinking current, and founders want to work with them because they鈥檝e encountered many of the same challenges.

We also use AI throughout the firm. We鈥檝e built what we call the Axiom Brain to help us make sense of market trends, identify interesting people and companies, and move faster on diligence and other work. For me, the value is the ability to act quickly.

You mentioned that some of those AI practitioners have other jobs. How does their role at Axiom work?

Venkatachalam: They have dedicated time to Axiom and work with us part time. They also receive carry in the fund. They鈥檙e partners in the work, rather than people whose names appear on an adviser list.

Their other jobs are central to the model. Some of the best angel investors are people who are still operating and building. I don鈥檛 need these people full time. In fact, they would be less valuable to Axiom if they left the work that keeps them close to the market.

Axiom says it invests in 鈥淎I for the real world.鈥� What does that mean when you鈥檙e evaluating a startup?

Venkatachalam: Our view is that AI should benefit a much broader population than the early adopters who are already using it. We look at industries underserved by technology, where AI can produce an outcome rather than simply provide another software tool.

That may lead us to construction, industrials or insurance. Some of those companies involve hardware, sensors or robotics; others are entirely software-based. What connects them is that they鈥檙e doing work that matters to customers in real-world industries.

We generally don鈥檛 invest in products that look like conventional enterprise software tools. We want to see AI delivering a result.

You鈥檝e described a shift from software people use to digital workers that perform jobs. Are customers actually paying for AI from labor budgets?

Venkatachalam: Yes, and that鈥檚 one of our investment criteria. Even when a portfolio company is at an alpha or design-partner stage, we do diligence to understand whether customers are willing to buy it that way. We鈥檙e often seeing contract values in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, rather than the much smaller contracts you might expect for a midmarket software tool.

We鈥檝e seen that buying behavior play out across the majority of the portfolio companies we鈥檝e invested in.

AI products are becoming faster to build and easier to imitate. What makes one durable enough to become a large company?

Venkatachalam: If you鈥檙e doing important work inside a customer鈥檚 business, and that work is worth a lot of money, you become difficult to replace. You鈥檙e handling what we call the last mile of the job.

In industrial settings, for example, delivering an outcome means integrating deeply with the systems customers use. You have to understand their data, train on it, learn the workflows that matter, and stand behind the result. That takes more than putting an interface on top of a model.

Those relationships and capabilities can become difficult for another startup to replicate. They also involve work that the large AI model companies may have little interest in doing themselves.

Before Axiom, you backed Groq when AI inference was far from an obvious investment category. What led you to it?

Venkatachalam: I came from both hardware and software. At one point, I became interested in why was building its own networking switches when it could buy them from existing suppliers. As I looked into that, I learned it was building its own chips, too.

That led me to , who had been involved in that work and had left to start Groq. I began learning why large technology companies were building chips to train models. Then Jonathan made the case that the much larger future market would be inference.

I鈥檒l be honest: In 2016, I barely understood inference. But if you believed these models would spread, it made sense that people would build on top of them and need the infrastructure to support that. That insight drove my investment.

How did that experience shape what you look for now?

Venkatachalam: It taught me the value of being a little early and having some patience. You don鈥檛 have to be wildly contrarian, but you do have to see the opportunity before it becomes obvious to everyone else.

In a way, our thesis hasn鈥檛 changed. We鈥檙e still asking what will be built on top of AI infrastructure and models. We want to invest while the answer is emerging, before there鈥檚 a consensus.

What happens when one of those early bets doesn鈥檛 work out?

Venkatachalam: We plan for it. We have a $52 million fund and expect to make 35 investments. We fully expect about half of them to fail, whether that means a company shuts down or simply never reaches the growth trajectory we鈥檙e looking for.

The model depends on finding an exceptional outcome. We need one outstanding investment to return the fund. If you invest early enough and the company becomes very large, that can offset many bets that didn鈥檛 work.

That willingness to accept losses is part of making investments before an opportunity is obvious. It鈥檚 built into how we approach the fund.

Related Crunchbase query:

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So far this year, global startups have secured at least 114 Series A rounds听1 of $100 million or more, per Crunchbase data. That鈥檚 the highest annual total in years and on track to top the all-time peak.

Moreover, many of those jumbo early-stage rounds far exceed the $100 million threshold. Collectively, this group of Series A recipients has raised around $33 billion this year, with at least 12 rounds valued at $500 million or more.

An AI thing

The funding bump was mostly an AI-driven phenomenon. Per Crunchbase data, more than 70% of Series A rounds of $100 million or more went to AI-focused startups.

That figure encompasses some of the year鈥檚 largest early-stage financings. For instance, it includes a $1.2 billion round for Silicon Valley-based , a platform for developers to train and serve custom models, and a $900 million financing for China-based , a developer of AI-enabled humanoid robots.

Below, we put together a sample of 10 of the largest Series A rounds, including mostly AI but a few other areas as well.

The high preponderance of AI deals reflects what we鈥檝e been seeing across stages. In the first half of this year, venture and growth funding to artificial intelligence startups totaled an estimated $394 billion, roughly 77% of all investment capital. Granted, most of that was for later-stage financings. But our Series A data shows early-stage doesn鈥檛 look too different for AI鈥檚 share.

US leads for jumbo Series A deals.

Roughly half of this year鈥檚 $100 million-plus Series A rounds and funding went to U.S.-based startups, per Crunchbase data. That translates to about 62 deals with a collective value of around $15 billion so far in 2026, which puts it on track for a record tally.

Still, megaround funding at Series A is more globally dispersed than overall venture investment this year. In the first half of 2026, more than three-quarters of global seed- through growth-stage financing went to American companies, largely due to megarounds for Silicon Valley-based and .

When investors like the same things

One can point to several potential causes behind the rise in Series A megarounds beyond AI growth alone. For one, leading startup investors have exceptionally large capital reserves to deploy. Additionally, exit multiples historically, and to an even greater extent recently, reward those who are anything but modest in their ambitions.

At Series A, another factor may be that investors seem to agree more than usual on the sectors, business models and founding teams they want to back. And given that a pricey share of a winner still beats a discounted share of a laggard, they鈥檙e piling in to perceived early-stage leaders.

Related Crunchbase queries:

Related reading:

• Crunchbase Data: Global Startup Investment Hit Record $510B in H1 2026 As AI Boom Accelerates Funding And Exits

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Always-busy was the most active backer of U.S.-based startups by deal count, while led or co-led the most rounds of $5 million or more, Crunchbase data shows.

Chip giant , meanwhile, sharply accelerated its dealmaking, ranking among the most active and highest-spending investors for the month. The chip giant participated in nine disclosed rounds of at least $5 million 鈥� marking its busiest month for investing since at least the beginning of 2025 鈥� and led or co-led financings collectively valued at $1.3 billion.

The flurry of activity came as global venture funding reached $42 billion in August, up 122% year over year, with seven companies raising billion-dollar-plus rounds last month.

Below, we rank August鈥檚 most active startup investors across several categories, including lead backers, prolific venture dealmakers, highest spenders and seed investors.

Active lead investors

San Francisco-based General Catalyst ranked as the most active lead investor in rounds of $5 million or more, leading or co-leading five such deals. Its largest was the $1.1 billion Series A for, which provides custom AI fine-tuning for businesses. General Catalyst also led or co-led a $116 million Series E for, along with three seed rounds ranging from $10 million to $25 million, Crunchbase data shows.

, and tied for second, with four lead or co-lead deals each.

The scale of those rounds varied considerably. The four deals that Andreessen led or co-led totaled more than $1.15 billion, driven by an $800 million Series C for defense tech company and a $300 million Series A for AI infrastructure startup .

Sequoia鈥檚 four led or co-led deals totaled $1.3 billion, including a $1 billion Series B for nuclear energy startup .

Busiest venture investors

When we widen the ranking to include both lead and non-lead participation in rounds of $5 million or more, Y Combinator once again takes the top spot.

The accelerator participated in at least 18 such deals in August, per Crunchbase data. As we鈥檝e noted in previous rankings, Y Combinator commonly invests as a non-lead backer in follow-on rounds for companies that previously went through its program.

Andreessen Horowitz ranked second with 13 deals, followed by General Catalyst with 10. and Nvidia tied for fourth with nine each.

Nvidia鈥檚 rise in the investor rankings is particularly notable. The Santa Clara, California-based chip giant participated in only four U.S. rounds of $5 million or more in July and one in August 2025. Seven of its nine qualifying investments last month went to companies categorized as AI-focused in Crunchbase, including River AI, , , and .

The August burst extends a notable increase in Nvidia鈥檚 venture dealmaking pace this year. Crunchbase data shows that by mid-August, it had participated in a record 59 known startup funding rounds in 2026, already surpassing its 53 investments in all of 2025. It had also led or co-led at least 11 private-company financings this year, underscoring its growing role as both a technology supplier to and financial backer of the AI startup ecosystem.

and Sequoia were next in our August rankings, each with seven U.S. startup investments of $5 million or more. RA Capital鈥檚 portfolio reflected its life sciences focus, with August deals including , , , and .

Highest-spending investors

The rankings change again when we look at lead investors associated with the highest aggregate deal values.

For August, was the apparent spendiest lead investor, thanks to its role leading 鈥� $5 billion deal. The round, the month鈥檚 largest, valued the data and AI company at $190 billion.

and followed, each leading or co-leading rounds with an aggregate value of $2.37 billion, as both were listed as lead investors in defense manufacturing startup鈥檚 $1.37 billion Series D and home battery provider鈥檚 $1 billion Series D.

Nvidia and Sequoia came next, each with $1.3 billion in led or co-led rounds. Nvidia鈥檚 total came from Poolside鈥檚 $1 billion financing and Volta鈥檚 $300 million Series A, while Sequoia led or co-led four rounds, topped by the Valar Atomics financing.

General Catalyst and Andreessen also crossed the $1 billion mark, with approximately $1.26 billion and $1.15 billion, respectively, in aggregate led round value.

As always, this is an approximation of spending rather than a tally of capital actually contributed. Investors rarely disclose how much each participant put into a round, although lead investors generally contribute a substantial share.

Seed dealmakers

At seed, Y Combinator was again the most prolific investor, backing at least 12 U.S.-headquartered companies in August.

ranked second with eight seed investments, all announced as part of the same August cohort. and followed with six seed deals each, while 1听recorded five. (It’s important to note that seed rankings are especially subject to change, since smaller financings often take longer to be reported and added to the Crunchbase dataset.)

Big checks, familiar names

August鈥檚 rankings tell a now-familiar story: A relatively small group of large venture firms continues to dominate by deal count, while a handful of megadeals determines who tops the spending ranks. But Nvidia鈥檚 acceleration this year also illustrates how corporate investors 鈥� particularly those with a direct stake in the AI ecosystem 鈥� are becoming increasingly prominent alongside traditional venture firms.

Related reading:

• Global Venture Funding Jumps 122% In August As Streak Of Billion-Dollar Deals Continues
• No Summer Doldrums For Active Startup Investors In July

Methodology

This analysis covers reported investments in U.S.-headquartered companies and is based on Crunchbase data pulled Sept. 10, 2026. Rankings for active venture and lead investors include rounds of $5 million or more. Seed rankings include angel, pre-seed, seed and equity crowdfunding rounds.

Funding data is subject to reporting lags, which are typically most pronounced at the seed stage.

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This is a weekly feature that runs down the week鈥檚 Top 10 announced funding rounds in the U.S. Check out last week鈥檚 biggest funding deal roundup here.

It was a monster week for U.S. startup funding, with four companies each raising $1 billion or more. 鈥檚 tunnel-drilling company led with a $3 billion Series D, followed by AI coding startup at $2 billion. Joining them near the top was , which landed $1.3 billion for its AI platform for physical operations, while reusable rocket developer raised another $1 billion.

Big checks also flowed to U.S. solar manufacturing, defense tech, legal AI and companies building the chips and networking infrastructure needed for artificial intelligence.

1. , $3B, transportation and infrastructure: Musk鈥檚 Bastrop, Texas-based tunneling company raised a $3 billion Series D led by the, with participation from investors including, and. The company is developing underground tunnel networks designed to move passengers and vehicles while reducing surface traffic, and already operates its Vegas Loop system beneath Las Vegas. The latest deal values it at $23 billion and brings its total funding to nearly $3.9 billion, .

2. , $2B, artificial intelligence: San Francisco-based Cognition raised a $2 billion Series E led by,,, and. The company is best known for Devin, its autonomous software-engineering agent, and is part of a highly funded crop of startups betting AI agents will take over increasingly complex coding and development work. Cognition has raised nearly $3.9 billion to date and was valued at $48 billion in the latest round, our shows.

3. , $1.3B, AI for physical operations: San Francisco-based Motive raised $1.3 billion in private equity funding led by. The company, formerly known as KeepTruckin, has an AI-driven platform used by trucking, construction and other physical-economy businesses to manage fleets, monitor driver safety, and automate operations and spending. The latest deal brings Motive鈥檚 total funding to just over $2 billion, according to .

4. , $1B, aerospace: Kent, Washington-based Stoke Space raised a $1 billion Series E co-led by and, with among the additional investors. The company is developing fully reusable rockets, including its Nova launch vehicle, as it looks to lower the cost of transporting satellites and other payloads to orbit. The latest round values Stoke at $10 billion and brings total funding to . Its raise adds to the already record-setting sums for space tech startup investment this year.

5. , $835M, solar energy: Norcross, Georgia-based Suniva raised $835 million from investors including, and. The longtime U.S. solar manufacturer produces high-efficiency solar cells and plans to use new capital to expand domestic production, including a new South Carolina facility that would more than quadruple its manufacturing capacity. Suniva has raised nearly .

6. , $600M, defense tech: Huntington Beach, California-based Mach Industries raised a $600 million Series C from investors including and. Founded in 2022, the defense manufacturer develops unmanned aircraft, long-range weapons, propulsion technology and the infrastructure needed to produce defense systems at scale. Mach is part of a broader surge in venture investment into defense companies looking to bring Silicon Valley-style development and manufacturing speeds to military hardware. The latest round values the company at $3.7 billion and brings its total funding to .

7. , $550M, legal AI: San Francisco-based Harvey raised a $550 million Series H co-led by and, with investors including and also participating. Harvey builds generative AI tools for lawyers and other professional-services workers, with products for legal research, document analysis and contract work. The company was valued at $15.5 billion in the latest deal, which brings its total funding to date to nearly . That makes it one of the most well-funded players in the legal tech space, which has seen robust investment this year, though slightly lower than last year鈥檚 all-time high.

8. (tied) , $500M, semiconductors: Fab2 raised a $500 million Series A led by, with among the other investors. Formerly known as Atomic Semi, Fab2 is trying to rethink semiconductor manufacturing by designing its own fabrication tools, components and software with the goal of building smaller chip factories faster and more cheaply. The funding is the first disclosed round for the company, which maintains headquarters in California and Kentucky, and values it at $3.7 billion.

8. (tied) , $500M, AI infrastructure: Reno, Nevada-based Positron raised a $500 million Series C led by and, with among its other investors. The startup develops purpose-built hardware for AI inference, where models actually process queries after they have been trained, and is one of a growing crop of chip companies challenging GPUs in particular AI workloads. The latest financing values Positron at $5 billion and brings its total funding to nearly $1.2 billion, .

10. (tied) , $275M, AI networking infrastructure: Laguna Beach, California-based Celero Communications raised a $275 million Series C led by, and. Celero develops coherent digital signal processor technology that helps move enormous quantities of data between chips and data centers while using less power, an increasingly critical bottleneck as AI clusters grow. The round values the company at $3 billion and brings total funding to roughly , according to Crunchbase.

10. (tied) , $275M, biotechnology: South San Francisco, California-based Encoded Therapeutics raised a $275 million Series F led by, with investors including, and also participating. The clinical-stage biotech develops precision genetic medicines for severe neurological disorders, with its lead therapy targeting Dravet syndrome, a rare genetic epilepsy. Encoded has raised $514.1 million to date, .

Methodology

We tracked the largest announced rounds in the Crunchbase database that were raised by U.S.-based companies for the period of Sept. 5-11, 2026. Although most announced rounds are in the database, there may be a small time lag, as some rounds are reported late in the week.

Related reading:

• Sector Snapshot: Space Tech Startup Funding Orbits New Highs听
• Anduril Raises Another $5B As Defense Tech Startups Shatter Funding Records
• Sector Snapshot: Legal Tech Funding Down Slightly From All-Time High听
• Sector Snapshot: Semiconductor Startup Funding Still Running Hot

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