Funding
Latest news, analysis, and insights about Funding.
Blacksmith Hits $1B as Weekly CI Jobs Jump From 5M to 90M
Blacksmith raised a Sequoia-led Series C at a $1 billion valuation ($66M per TechCrunch), bringing total funding to $125M. Weekly CI jobs rose from 5 million to more than 90 million since January as AI agents push more code through build and test.
Dream Labs Raises $90M Seed, Opens Dream-1 Robot API at $3 an Hour
Former NVIDIA GR00T researchers launched Dream Labs with a $90 million seed led by B Capital and Kindred Ventures. Dream-1, a World Action Model, runs through a public API at $3 per robot-hour and was tested zero-shot on 27 unseen robot bodies.
Tenstorrent Raises $1.5B Series E at $6.2B to Scale Galaxy Servers
Jim Keller's Tenstorrent closed a $1.5 billion Series E at a $6.2 billion post-money valuation, led by Trace Capital and Innovation X. The money funds Galaxy server deployments and the RISC-V CPU and AI core IP it licenses to Samsung, LG and others.
Modal Raises $750M Series D at $15.75B After Crossing $1B Run Rate
Modal raised $750 million in a Series D at a $15.75 billion post-money valuation led by Accel, after crossing $1 billion in annualized run rate. Usage tripled since its Series C five months earlier; sandboxes alone are about a $300 million run-rate product.
Salience Labs Raises $125M Series B for Photonic AI Datacenter Switches
Salience Labs raised an oversubscribed $125 million Series B led by Bullhound Capital, with AMD Ventures, Intel Capital, SBI Group, Hudson River Trading, and British Business Bank participating. Funds scale optical circuit switching (OCS) manufacturing and a Silicon Valley expansion after a 64-port all-optical demo at ECOC 2026.
Nous Research Raises $90M Series B for Hermes for Businesses
Nous Research raised $90 million for Hermes for Businesses at a $1.5 billion valuation led by Robot Ventures, confirmed to TechCrunch. NVIDIA, USV, Menlo, Samsung and 1789 Capital participated; total funding is now $158 million.
VEIR Raises $110M Series C for Superconducting AI Data Center Power
VEIR raised an oversubscribed $110 million Series C co-led by Matter Venture Partners and Tyche Partners, bringing total funding to $225 million. The capital funds manufacturing and first commercial deployments of superconducting power delivery for AI data centers after a 3-megawatt demonstration.
GMI Cloud Raises $668M: $223M Series B Plus $445M Credit
GMI Cloud raised $668 million: $223 million Series B equity led by ARCHIV with NVIDIA participating, plus a $445 million CTBC-led credit facility. Capacity expansion targets the U.S., Taiwan and APAC; contracted ARR is company-reported at more than 9× year-end 2025.
Reactor Hits $74M Total as NVIDIA and Sapphire Join Series A
Reactor added NVIDIA and Sapphire Ventures to its Series A, bringing total funding to $74 million for real-time world-model and generative-video infrastructure. Lightspeed leads; valuation and October check sizes were not disclosed.
Boost Run Signs $525.6M Five-Year Cohere GPU Cloud Deal
Boost Run signed a five-year ~$525.6 million dedicated GPU cloud agreement with Cohere for NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 capacity. Acceptance is expected in early Q2 2027; company TCV is now over $2.6 billion.
Vinci Raises $250M Series B at $1.5B for Physics AI
Vinci raised $250 million at a $1.5 billion valuation for Continuous Physics Reasoning, which it says analyzes chip designs of more than 15 billion degrees of freedom in minutes, zero-shot. Advent, Temasek and Xora co-led; AMD Ventures joined.
Sharon AI Closes $356M GPU-Backed Debt Facility at 9.95%
SharonAI Holdings closed a US$356 million senior secured GPU-backed SPV debt facility at 9.95% fixed, with Goldman Sachs among lenders, as the first in a series toward more than 68,000 NVIDIA GPUs by mid-2027.
Volantis Raises $88M Series A for Photonic AI Inference
Volantis raised an $88 million Series A co-led by Lachy Groom and Abstract Ventures for photonic inference hardware targeting models over 20 trillion parameters at up to 10,000 tokens per second per user, with first systems aimed at 2027.
Clockwork.io Raises $31M to Keep AI Jobs Running Through GPU Failures
Clockwork.io raised $31 million, bringing total funding to $73 million, for LinkPass and TorchPass fault-tolerance software. LinkedIn runs it fleet-wide, Together AI will resell TorchPass, and new snapshots capture a running job in under 20 seconds.
Lambda Closes $1.008B Investment-Grade GPU Debt Facility
Lambda closed a $1.008 billion investment-grade delayed-draw GPU facility at 6.78% fixed, rated A (low)/Baa1 and maturing May 30, 2033. J.P. Morgan led; offtakers and capacity MW remain unnamed.
EliseAI Raises $350M at a $4B Valuation
EliseAI raised $350 million at a $4 billion valuation, co-led by a16z and Bessemer with Ontario Teachers' joining. The property-management AI company says it passed $200 million ARR in June.
Samsung Group Puts $1B Into KKR’s Helix, Led by Ex-AWS CEO Selipsky
Samsung Electronics ($500 million) and five affiliates are investing a combined $1 billion in Helix Digital Infrastructure, the KKR-built AI data center and power company led by former AWS CEO Adam Selipsky. KKR, KIA, NVIDIA and Vistra are the other founding investors. No valuation or capacity figures on the wire.
Instinct Series C: $1B at $10B for a Personal Agent
Instinct announced an additional $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation from Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Coatue. The personal agent is still in early access, and the company has not shared users, revenue, or growth metrics.
Nscale Pre-IPO Convertible: $3.36B Led by Third Point
Nscale Limited announced a $3.36 billion raise via convertible loan notes led by Third Point. The initial tranche is $2.36 billion at closing, plus a $1 billion NVIDIA commitment expected mid-November 2026. The over $103 billion TCV figure is company-reported. No valuation on the primary wire.
Basecamp Research Series C: $140M for EDEN Therapeutics
Basecamp Research announced a $140 million oversubscribed Series C led by S32. The September 24 correction names Menlo Ventures' Anthology Fund. Preclinical results are company-reported. No valuation on the primary wire.
Cyera Series G Extension: $400M From Goldman Sachs
Cyera announced a $400 million Series G extension from Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. The original Series G was led by Evolution Equity. The >$12 billion valuation and named customers are company-reported.
Verda Series B: $189M Makes Europe's Newest AI Cloud Unicorn
Verda announced a $189 million oversubscribed Series B led by Emergence Capital. The company blog calls it Europe's latest unicorn and puts total funding over $450 million. Operating and revenue figures are company-reported.
Crusoe Initial Close: $3.9B Series F at $30.9B Post-Money
Crusoe announced the initial closing of an anticipated $3.9 billion Series F at a $30.9 billion post-money valuation. The GlobeNewswire called the round oversubscribed and named Atreides, Mubadala, and Valor as co-leads. Operating figures on the wire are company-reported.
Lightfield Wrote Its Own CRM. Process Takeaways From the $47M Round
Lightfield, not Lightspeed, raised a $47 million Series A led by a16z. Keith Peiris and Henri Liriani killed Tome, a 25-million-user product, and wrote an agent-native CRM from customer context. The process is the story.
Arcee Series B: $1B+ Valuation After a $20M 400B Model
Arcee AI announced a Series B on September 16, 2026 that values the company at more than $1 billion. Vista Equity Partners, Cambium Capital, and Emergence Capital led. The 2025 model lineup, including Trinity Large, cost about $20 million.
Gatik Raises $200 Million Series D After PepsiCo Deal
Gatik closed a $200 million Series D on August 25, 2026, led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies. TechCrunch puts cumulative capital at about $500 million since 2019. Valuation was not disclosed. Contracted-revenue and on-time figures below are company-reported.
Rillet Funding Reveals Why AI Accounting Is Coming for Legacy ERP
Rillet has become a unicorn just two years after emerging from stealth, raising $100 million from ICONIQ Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia Capital. Its rapid ascent shows investors believe AI-native accounting software can pry open a market long controlled by legacy ERP vendors.
Higgsfield’s $400 Million Series B Tests the Economics of AI Video
Higgsfield has raised $400 million at a $5.4 billion valuation, more than quadrupling its price in eight months. Its reported $700 million revenue run rate makes the number plausible—but AI video’s compute bill complicates the story.
How Databricks' $190 Billion Valuation Signals an Insatiable Appetite for AI Infrastructure
Databricks initially set out to raise $1 billion. Investors offered $15 billion. The resulting $5 billion round at a $190 billion valuation marks a watershed moment for AI infrastructure.
Why Cognition's Potential $40 Billion Valuation Signals a Massive Agentic AI Shift
AI software engineering startup Cognition is reportedly in talks to raise new capital at a staggering $40 billion valuation. Coming just months after a $26 billion valuation, the move highlights the extreme premium investors are placing on the agentic AI layer.
How OpenAI-Backed Thrive Holdings Secured $2 Billion to Dominate Enterprise Workflows
Thrive Holdings has closed a monumental $2 billion funding round at a $12 billion valuation. Backed by OpenAI and SoftBank, the deal signals an aggressive concentration of capital into the enterprise application layer.
How the $250 Million VideoVerse Acquisition Collapse Signals a Crisis in AI Due Diligence
A $250 million deal for AI video platform VideoVerse has imploded amid allegations of forged signatures and fraud. Co-founder Vinayak Shrivastav faces mounting legal battles as unpaid investors demand answers.
How Lovable Built a $13.3 Billion AI Software Empire in Just 21 Months
AI-assisted software platform Lovable has raised $400 million in Series C funding, catapulting its valuation to $13.3 billion. In less than two years, the platform has captured two-thirds of the Fortune 500, signaling a massive shift toward natural-language application development.
Why General Catalyst is pumping $1.1 billion into two-month-old River AI
River AI, a two-month-old startup founded by xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, has secured a historic $1.1 billion round led by General Catalyst to build autonomous personal agents.
OpenAI Closes Historic $7 Billion Employee Tender Offer to Lock in Top Talent
OpenAI has reportedly finalized a massive $7 billion employee tender offer. This historic secondary market transaction reshapes the war for AI talent and signals unwavering investor appetite despite soaring infrastructure costs.
How Nvidia is shifting the crushing cost of AI data centers onto Wall Street
Nvidia is reportedly coordinating a historic $500 billion funding package with Wall Street. The move shifts the financial burden of next-generation AI data centers from Big Tech balance sheets to institutional investors.
Why Omilia’s $67 Million Funding Shows the Power of Capital-Efficient Enterprise AI
Conversational AI pioneer Omilia has secured a $67 million Series B round after quietly scaling its ARR tenfold to $60 million since 2020. This capital-efficient milestone signals a massive shift in how enterprise AI is valued.
Legendary Chief Scientist Jeff Dean Leaves Google to Launch AI for Science Startup
Jeff Dean, Google's legendary chief scientist, is leaving the tech giant alongside top researchers to launch a startup. The new venture will focus on using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery.
How Nvidia's Strategic Backing of Sarvam AI Anchors Its GPU Monopoly in India
Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI has closed a $75 million Series B extension, securing Nvidia as a strategic investor. The deal values the sovereign AI startup at $1.51 billion, cementing Nvidia's footprint in India's rapidly growing infrastructure landscape.
Why July’s record $65 billion VC surge marks a permanent shift to state-scale AI infrastructure
A record-breaking 14 billion-dollar rounds in July 2026 pushed global venture capital to $65 billion. Driven by frontier AI and sovereign tech, the market is undergoing a structural shift toward capital-intensive, state-scale infrastructure.
How Elon Musk is bypassing grid delays with Tesla Megapacks for xAI compute
SpaceX has purchased $329 million in Tesla Megapacks to fuel xAI's rapid data center scaling. While rivals wait for utility approvals, Elon Musk is building a self-sustaining power empire for AI.
Why the Shift to Agentic Security Led to Obsidian’s $85 Million Series D
As enterprises deploy autonomous AI agents, security is emerging as the primary bottleneck to adoption. Obsidian Security's $85 million Series D at a $1.1 billion valuation signals a massive capital pivot toward runtime governance.
Why Anthropic Is Spending $10 Billion on Startup Volta Instead of Tech Giants
Anthropic has committed a staggering $10 billion to AI cloud startup Volta. The massive deal reveals the extreme capital demands of training next-gen models and Anthropic's strategic hedge against its own tech giant backers.
Horizon3 Raises $250M Series E at $2B Valuation to Lead AI-Native Defense Era
Cybersecurity firm Horizon3 has raised $250 million in an oversubscribed Series E round, tripling its valuation to more than $2 billion. The capital will fuel the scaling of its NodeZero platform to combat the rise of fully autonomous, AI-driven cyber attacks.
Why Zenity's $125M Round Signals a Shift to Securing Autonomous AI Agent Actions
Israeli security startup Zenity has secured $125 million in Series C funding. The round highlights a massive shift in corporate cyber defense: protecting what autonomous AI agents do, not just what they say.
How HappyRobot Series C Funding Solidifies the Rise of Vertical AI Voice Agents
HappyRobot has raised a $150 million Series C round at a $1.2 billion valuation. By pivoting from general developer tooling to specialized voice agents for logistics, the company provides a masterclass in AI monetization.
How London's OLIX AI Chip Startup Aims to Shatter the Interconnect Bottleneck
London-based AI hardware pioneer OLIX has secured a $3.3 billion valuation. Backed by Arm and the UK Sovereign AI fund, the startup is betting on silicon photonics to break the physics bottleneck limiting modern LLM inference.
Bending Spoons Acquires Airtable for $1.28B: What It Means for Enterprise Users
Bending Spoons has agreed to acquire Airtable for $1.285 billion. For Airtable's enterprise customers, the Italian conglomerate's ruthless operational playbook of layoffs and price hikes is about to begin.
Why Hidden Hyperscaler Debt Threatens a Major Tech Market Correction
Silicon Valley's massive AI buildout is hiding a trillion-dollar secret. As off-balance-sheet borrowing hits $1.65 trillion, hyperscalers face an imminent financial reckoning that could trigger a wider tech market correction.
Inside the $10 Billion Financial Engineering Behind Naver's Global Sovereign AI Factory
South Korean internet giant Naver has detailed a massive $10 billion partnership with NVIDIA and Brookfield. By offloading GPU hardware onto a specialized infrastructure SPV, Naver is rewriting the rules of AI capital expenditure.